The Konquerors
by Berserker Loco
Summary: MK vs DC After Armageddon, Frost runs amok in Jump City and its up to the Titans to put a stop to her. But Nightwolf has another idea. Shoujoai later on.
1. Pretty cool start

War of any kind is greatly devastating as it is, but it is at its most horrible and fearsome when it is between different cultures. People in general have always shown at least mistrust to those that are radically different from themselves, be it because they have not see that color of skin, the mannerism or even because they cannot communicate between one another due to language barriers, so when two culture collide between one another in war the result is even more frightening amongst its participants for they face enemies unlike anything they have seen before. At least on Civil Wars though they fight amongst brothers and sisters, soldiers know what to expect, but what about fighting someone from another universe?

Though many years had passed after the defeat of Dark Khan bringing peace and stability to the cosmos, all had not gone completely well in the realm of Earth and after the reality shattering events of the Deadly Alliance and the return of the Dragon King, the Apocalypse was imminent for the war torn universe of the Elder Gods' realms. Perseverant and all knowing as they are however, they had long foresaw the devastating effects that constant combat between super beings would have on the fabrics of reality, every burning ki coming from all the participants of the Mortal Kombat tournaments at the same time would have disastrous side effects and that is why the fire being known as Blaze was created. Whoever would destroy him would absorb the powers from all the combatants into themselves, leaving only one new God instead of dozen minor ones either discarding or outright killing those who had failed to achieve their goal.

However as things often happen in universe of the Elder Gods, something went completely wrong. Though their chosen one, Taven, was capable of defeating Blaze the power of the Mortal Kombat participants was not stolen and bestowed upon him as everyone expected but rather pushed every other warrior into a different realm, dimension or even universe. Though the Elder Gods' domains were safe once more since a great number of the combatants had been banished from their realms, the fighters still possessed the tremendous powers that come from participating in Mortal Kombat. One can only imagine what sort of consequence sprinkling beings of such sadistic and violent nature through the cosmos will have, but in the end it wasn't the Elder Gods' problem anymore and they were content to leave their supposed charges to someone else.

Like irresponsible parents leaving their spoiled offsprings unattended, chaos was sure to come wherever a Kombatant came to be.

There is no justice anymore, only MOOOOORTAAAAAAAAL KOOOOOOOOMBAAAAAAAAAT!!!!!

Snow!? In the middle of summer?

Law enforcing agencies were left aghast at the crime scene before them. Several crooks lay on the ground beaten senseless by an alley, most of them were frozen solid, their features still left in the agonizing painful expressions they had as they were getting the crap beaten out of them, the walls of the surrounding buildings as well as the ground covered by a layer of ice. Police were tipped off by this strange scenery not by someone calling 911, or much less by crashes and screams of pain as the street brawl took place, but rather by a sudden patch of the city's temperature lowering rapidly before snow fell.

It was quite a treat to the police however; all kinds of murders, robberies and rapes had been reported in the vicinity of the alley but no matter how many patrol cars protected the area, authorities could never find any unsavory looking individuals to arrest. So to find the gang that had been committing all those atrocious crimes piled up beaten senseless and turned into ice cubes for the police to pick up was quite refreshing, talk about someone making their job easier for them.

"Well I guess we can close this case, I'm gonna have to send a Christmas card to those kids at the tower from now on. Didn't think they'd had the guts to go around stopping murderers since they're always chasing all those masked lunatics like themselves."

The police chief idly commented surveying the scene to a detective both wearing heavy jackets due to the low temperature of the scene and shivering quite a bit, but even then the veteran looking detective couldn't simply pass this one up. There was something wrong here.

"I dunno Chief. Something tells me that the Titans didn't have anything to do with this."

"What? Do we know of any other superpowered people that beat up entire gangs and turn them in like this to us?" Countered the Chief.

"No…not that I'm aware of. But I mean, look at this mess, our archives don't have any incidents that resemble this. The husslers all shown signs of have gotten in a bare fisted fight, swollen cheeks, black eyes, the works. But look at this.." The detective said picking something up from the floor with a pincer to not spoil the evidence and showed it to his boss, it was a broken tooth.

"So what? Didn't expect to find a couple of those in a scrap?"

"Not where the Titans are involved, no. Robin has brought some crooks to us badly beaten before but never like this. Broken teeth, shattered collar bones, collapsed knee caps…I don't think some of these guys will be able to walk again Chief. Besides there's the ice, we don't have any reports of any Titan capable of doing that."

The police chief didn't seem to be all that impressed by the detective's research, he merely shrugged idly and continued drinking his coffee trying to keep himself warm. "Robin may be just a kid detective, but he was trained by none other than Batman himself and reports are always coming from Gotham city of Bats hospitalizing scumbags all the time, maybe he's starting to finally grow up, which shows since he's going for murderers now. Plus, he doesn't work alone; don't they have that emo angsty teenager sorceress with them? Could be that she just learn a new spell." The Chief explained calmly showing the detective other possibilities for his theory, as he glanced back to the face of his subordinate and noticing by his features that he was still not convinced he sighed. "But, if it really means that much to you I'll ask 'em about it. If it turns out you're right it'd be best if we let 'em know they have competition, last thing this city needs is two guilds of super heroes duking it out in the streets."

Meanwhile in the Titan Tower .

Being the first one to wake up, Robin was the unlucky recipient to get the message from the police agency. The boy wonder furrowed his eyebrows and checked the panel for official reports from the local authorities scanning the message asking if they were involved in the apprehension of the group of iced gangbangers. Before responding however, Robin made sure to turn to the news to hear of any other details, the chief of police had neglected to be specific on what had happened causing even more discomfort and curiosity on the Titan leader. As he tuned in to the morning news and heard the anchor's report, he was left even more puzzled.

A group of frozen beaten crooks found unconscious on the streets? Robin's initial thought was that of Red X, but not only had the professional thief shun the path of a hero, he also knew that he wasn't capable of using ice to apprehend criminals, not to mention that if he somehow managed to reprogram the suit in some manner to do this he wouldn't use it to solidify gang bangers.

Also the part of the city in which the fight took place was one that normally only Cyborg and he patrolled, being the most senior members. Starfire's and Beastboy's infantile nature left them as a liability when tracking down criminals of such magnitude, though relatively weak in comparison to the world threats they have to deal with. the two oddly colored members of their group were considered incapable of handling sensitive cases like murder and rape; they would have to wait until they were older. Since Cyborg hadn't reported going on a solo mission to apprehend that gang that only left Raven, it could have been possible that she had gone into another one of her uncontrollable rages and decided to take it out on street scum.

"Raven, can I talk to you for a second?" Robin confronted the sorceress once they were all coming down to the mess hall for breakfast. Since Raven always secluded herself from the group and went to drink tea by herself, talking her in private wasn't difficult, prying Beast Boy or Starfire unnoticed would have been more challenging.

"What is it?" Hissed the girl with her usual morbid demeanor, her expression that of utter boredom as she sipped her tea trying to tone down Cyborg's and Beast Boy's argument over who gets to make breakfast. Robin's look however told her that this seemed to be quite serious causing her to arch a thin eye brow in concern, showing the slightest amount of worry at getting scolded by her leader.

"Were you out patrolling by yourself last night by any chance?"

"No..I was in my room meditating, you'd know if I went out by myself by my report on the security system…what's all this about?"

Robin went and sat in front of the sorceress, handing her some pictures of the scene he had printed. The sorceress frowned as she scanned over the pained visages of the beaten crooks encased in ice and asked "What exactly am I looking at?"

"The police chief mailed me this morning about a group of gang bangers found beaten senseless and frozen solid by in alley in the southern sector of the city. Now you know Beast Boy and Starfire are specifically told not to go there, but you can patrol in the city as you please and since neither Cyborg nor I had to do anything with it I thought maybe you would know something."

Raven didn't respond right away as she was accustomed to do, even when under pressure from the Titan leader. Tea after all came first for the young sorceress and she wet her lips on the beverage delicately before sipping, her eyes half closed. Just as Robin was about to lose his patience Raven decided it was time to answer.

"If you think that my powers are getting out of control again then you're wrong. Ever since that little incident with the personality issues I've secured the door to my room so I can't get out unless I have control of my mind."

"So it wasn't you."

Raven shook her head "No, but I may know something that could relate to that incident."

This made Robin arch his eyebrow and the young teen wonder was all ears once Raven start relating her sources.

"A couple of days ago I felt a universe very far away from here in the brink of death. Every time a universe dies or is about to there's an incredible feeling that flows across the cosmos, it's hard for any magician to not get this imminent sense of dread that comes from such a tremendous loss of life." Raven explained calmly as she sat and slowly drank her tea "This universe however gave a very different feeling, usually whenever a universe is about to collapse whether it is a natural or inflicted death, there is always a tremendous explosion that makes a magician's heart skip a beat. It can be from their sun imploding or an intensified battle by the inhabitants. But this one felt as if there were only just a few people fighting before it shattered." The sorceress took a pause to sip from her tea before finishing. "No technologically advanced armies, no great natural disasters, no catastrophic acts of deities. Just a bunch of meat heads trading blows."

Though this somehow was relevant to what Robin had just heard, universes at risk, intergalactic battles, super powered hooligans duking it out and a strange street brawl in the shady part of town, he didn't seem to know exactly what it had to do with this situation in particular.

"So--"

"So" Raven followed up before Robin could ask her how did the two relate "Just as the universe was about to collapse I felt a dozen or so people get violently shot out from their reality, most likely to avoid the escalation of their fighting break the fabric of the universe."

This was starting to sound more like something that Robin could believe, which Raven could see from the skeptical look on his face and decided to clean up her story. "You have to understand however that it was easy for me to sense these people's presence because of their immense power. An all out brawl from a multitude of people each capable of destroying worlds with their bare hands is ought to be felt across galaxies."

Robin was no fool and after Raven's explanation he finally deduced where she was going with this. "You're saying that the people who got shot out could have possibly landed here?"

"Precisely." Raven nodded taking another sip of her tea

"When exactly did you feel all this?"

"A few days ago."

"I don't understand, what are the possibilities of such a thing happening? World destroyers getting sent specifically to our reality?"

"Normally the chances are slim, but perhaps this universe was parallel to ours. Or perhaps it just happened to be aligned with this one at the precise moment their universe was about to explode. Either way, given the low probabilities of this scenario even if that was to be the reason behind those brawls, the fighters sent our way couldn't be that many, maybe one or two."

"Or maybe they just dumped all their problems into our hands." Robin countered.

"Unlikely, but there is that possibility. Our universe has the nasty habit of being other realities garbage disposal."

This troubled Robin greatly who started going over the photographs of the incident sent his way, the terrified and beaten faces of the hooligans frozen solid were more to shake him. Although there was the chance Raven's story might be a nice tid bit of information, the death of a universe avoided by sending fighting machines to other worlds along with this odd street scrap were too near each other to be a coincidence. Robin couldn't take that chance.

"It doesn't make any sense though. If fighters of that magnitude were sent our way, why would any of them lower themselves to pick fights with street rats rather than start terrorizing cities?"

"Who knows? Perhaps they don't have that many high aspirations, or maybe they weren't the smartest of people. You have to be pretty dumb to not realize you're fighting is causing your universe to collapse all around yourself."

A pause as Raven finished her tea.

"Either that, or they don't care who they engage in combat."

"You're gonna pay for what you did to us! You little psycho bitch!!!"

Not very far from where the first street brawl took place, a similar turn of events was taking place as several hoodlum ruffians surrounded a single individual. Armed to the teeth with crowbars, chains, lead pipes, brass knuckles and even wooden clubs, the punks numbering at least twenty in number closed in to their next victim, a cornered young woman who pressed her back onto a fence so as to not get completely circled. It looked like a typical deplorable street event, a gang of men intent on taking on a single unarmed female by force and do unspeakable things to her, but there was something odd about this particular woman as she seemed to be a punk or street member herself, albeit a very oddly dressed one, even for a gang banger. The woman stood shy of six feet of height and was wearing a full bodied black suit along with a blue tunic strapped across her torso, blue gloves and boots covered her extremities and half her face was covered by a bandit mask exposing only her cold blue eyes and violently spiked blue hair to the viewer. The despite the predicament in which she found herself in, the woman didn't cower or begged for mercy, but rather one could almost see her smiling under that bandit mask as she motioned all the gangsters to come closer with an outstretched hand.

"Come and get it boys, your ass whooping is getting cold."

As the woman cackled in a taunting fashion and the gang bangers lost their composure charging her with frenzied rage, their weapons high in the air and eyes full of violence, the spunky young girl breathed out cold breath from under her mask and rather than stay put went to met them head on.

Charging towards them she meet the first interloper with a kick to his knee shattering the joint and causing the gang banger to reel back in agonizing pain as he fell on top of his fellows. Undaunted the other nineteen hooligans circled around their buddy to start bringing down the pain on the girl, but as many as they were only four of them could attack at the same time causing their superior numbers to act as a liability. Whether the young woman actually planned this or simply had great courage to try and take them all by herself was not very clear, although she undoubtedly knew what she was doing in a fight. The first lead pipe and club swings coming down to her head where blocked with her forearms which she used to deflect the blows ignoring the pain of metal and wood colliding with her flesh and bone, as they swung their weapons again to go for a second blow, the woman twirled around and thrust her index fingers deep inside the armpits of one thug actually going to break flesh and puncture a major blood artery, then going to dodge and take advantage of the chaos caused by one of thugs squirting blood from the armpits to twirl around again and elbow smash another in the neck to collapse his wind pipe, the man stumbling forward holding his neck as he gurgled out foam gasping for air.

Another pair came to replace the fallen ones but as they charged in they met the bodies of their injured comrades tossed at them as the girl twirled around again smacking the lead pipe swing at her aside with her open palm and thrust her fingers onto another's eyes to blind him, immediately twisting her body to one side to land a tornado kick onto another attacker's groin. Five of them fallen in less that ten seconds, the next four came in to swing at her with brass knuckles and feet, the woman curling up to take the blows on her forearms and shins, with the woman grasping at one of the men's arm that was not fast enough to draw it back and punching him in the elbow to snap it at the joint. Screaming in horror as he felt his limb bend in a way its not supposed to, the thug tried to pull away only to put himself back to back with the girl, a situation she used to her advantage thrusting her hips back to send him flying over her head, the flailing feet of the injured hooligan hitting his partner's chin behind him before he collided with another one.

Seeing their situation to be particularly grim a bold gangster went to grapple with the girl who was currently ripping them all to shreds, the scrapper ducking his torso low grabbing hold of the woman's waist to immobilize her and leave her for his fellows to deal with. It was a risky move, and he knew that he was going to take a few hits, but he never imagined that it would only take just one devastating downward elbow smash from the girl onto his body to completely shatter his collar bone and leave his arms useless. Lowering his limp arms to his sides the thug got pulled up by his purple mohawk by the woman who heard an object coming rapidly to the side of her head, ducking and letting the lead pipe coming to hit her at the side to instead smack the other guy's face sending him reeling sideways. Crouched low she spun around again to throw a reverse punch to the lead pipe wielding attacker hitting him right in the kidneys, causing him to hold his stomach move to one side and lose his lunch on the concrete. Twenty seconds after the fight and fifteen of the twenty attackers had been either incapacitated or knocked unconscious and the final five set of gangsters came in to deal with the woman.

Like if they hadn't learned anything from their previous experience they all swung at her at the same time meeting nothing but air as she weaved around it although an unfortunate one's strike collided with the girl's elbow cracking his knuckles. Pulling back and holding his cracked hand, the thug watched as how the fifth member filled in for him and they all swung once more hitting the punk girl's forearm's and back for weak body shots, the woman then pressing to one side letting the chain swung at her hit another member to then smack one with a back hand followed up with a punch to the side of his jaw knocking some of his teeth flying of. Yet another attack to her exposed rear and the woman turned once again to grab at the wrist from the incoming knife trying to shank her in the side, to slip under his arms and twist it behind his back, pressing tightly onto the vein on his wrist to send pain through his limb and force him to let go off the shiv. Not wanting to hit his homie, the other one attempted to move side ways and smack the woman from behind, but at that point the girl decided to switch from skill to raw strength heaving the hooligan she trapped over her head and tossed him forward. The last remaining one evaded the flying body of his team mate only to look back again at the girl and feel both her hands strike at the side of his head simultaneously, the world turned silent by a deafening ring to him then as his ear drums shattered, fluid running down his earlobes and collapsed on the ground holding his head.

"No way man…no way in hell! She ain't human!! I'm getting the hell out of here!" The last gangster, the one who had his knuckles cracked cowered staring in disbelief as how the bodies of his crew littered the streets and turned to make a run for it.

He didn't get very far, just as he had taken a few steps towards the main streets he gave out a gasped scream as his body temperature dropped violently and was encased in a block of ice, his eyes still wide with the shock of being immobilized.

The culprit for this was none other than the spiky haired girl herself, her palm facing the fleeing thug showing that the blast of ice which froze the man came from her. Lowering her arm she scanned the area for any reaming threat, finding only unconscious or groaning members of the gang struggling to move or merely not bleed to death, her icy cold blue eyes narrowed finding the last gang member still staring up at her from the floor holding his injured arm.

"Who…what are you?"

"I'm the coolest ninja you'll ever meet, chum" Responded the girl with blue hair pointing to herself with her thumb "The name's Frost, and you'll do well to remember me."

The thug didn't seem too thrilled by Frost's arrogant behavior and attempted a last bravado even in his incapacitated condition "This ain't over you bitch! We gonna go outside the family, get some heavy hitters and then--"

"And then! You'll get you're ass handed to ya in a platter again!" Frost finished his sentence for him, walking closer and looking down "See, thing is that I coulda turned you all to popsicles like your home boy over there the second you charged at me, but I ain't gonna waste my freezing abilities on scum like you." She hissed out blowing cold air from her blue bandit mask down to the man "I was just toying with you suckers."

The gang member didn't feel particularly brave anymore now that he was staring directly into Frost's violent eyes and kept quiet, something told him that if he pissed her off anymore he could very well die. Frost seeing the fear in his face chuckled and pressed her foot onto his face causing him to grunt in disgust "Now that you know your place, lick all the blood off my boots."

The thug however, still had his pride and spat out "Go fuck yourself you ska-NOO!! AGGH!!" Only to be interrupted by Frost's foot coming down repeatedly on his face, stomping him flat on the pavement causing his skull to bounce due to the blows until he lay unconscious, lips and nose bloodied and broken.

Hearing the struggle, another half beaten to death thug tried to move away only to find Frost pinning him to the ground by stepping on his chest. "So how about it boy, still got some fight left in ya?"

The thug shook his head in fear, it looked like the guy who had gotten his knee broken by the girl at the very beginning of the fight. "No ma'am"

Frost snickered and went to put her bloodied boot on this one's face, just like she had done to the previous thug "The clean it off."

"Yes ma'am" The panicked gangster stuttered, staring at the boot's sole, sticking his tongue out and starting to lick.

With a haughty evil look about her, Frost placed her hands on her hips feeling quite proud of herself. Looks like this new world she was in was ripe for her konquest.


	2. Teenagers scare the crap outta me

Chapter Two: Teenagers scare the crap outta me.

Whatever happened to the saying 'the freaks came out at night' anyway? It wasn't an extremely uncommon sight to see, but the young lady walking down the street with violently blue hair spiked up should realize that it was still too early in the day to go raving. Frost had discarded her normal Lin Kuei uniform and donned a more casual ware, a sleeveless tight blue tank top with some jeans and modest sneakers, her blue lipstick and make up already drew enough attention to herself and though she was quite the show off she wasn't about to make herself known just yet before scouting her surroundings. What she lacked in experience in the ninja arts she made up with sheer prodigy talent.

Blowing a bubble gum from her full lips, the punk girl thought back on the events that had happened in the last couple of days. To some, that one against twenty street fight would be the highlight of their life, but for Frost it was naught but a simple footnote. Instead, her thoughts wandered back when she was freed from her icy prison by that man, what was his name? The assassin never found out, but his strength was undeniable and he managed to beat some sense into her when she tried to attack him. It was a lucky shot, Frost thought; she was dazed from being trapped in ice of so long and besides the goatee he had looked stupid on him in her not so humble opinion and spared him not a second more of her thoughts. Before she knew what has happening, she was stumbling out of the Lin Kuei monastery, taking a portal to Outworld to find her sifu and extract some well deserved revenge only to get sucked into some monumental fighting by the steppes of a pyramid. There she fought that woman again, Sonya, the very name caused Frost to scowl in barely restrained rage and jealousy, envious of her fame and power, how everybody loved her and sought her council, even her damnable sifu bowed his head to her just because she was a Lieutenant of the United States special forces. Didn't Sub-Zero have any pride in his nationality!? Then again, Frost wasn't what one that could consider herself a traditional Chinese girl either, and it wasn't only because she found out of the Lin Kuei monastery that she moved out of her home at fifteen, bind her feet will they?? She sure showed her parents, spiking her hair up, quitting school and taking up martial arts to beat up people for fun.. She was unstoppable except for that one time she fought Sonya.

Frost shook her head as her thoughts returned to that woman again, she lost, she lost to Sonya! That was the reason why she was here in this world and not in Outworld. Anger rising the girl purposely shoved a pass byer with her shoulder hoping to pick a fight right there and then, but thankfully for everyone present the man seemed to be the industrious type, apologizing like it was his fault adjusting his tie and moving on. So much for stress relief, Frost thought again with narrowed eyes before walking again, the people here were so weak, back home after getting into a couple of scraps like the one last night she would have been already asked by some crazed sorcerer to participate in some tournament were you fight to the death. That was it though, in this dimension, there was really no such thing and thus organizations that trained warriors constantly to prevent the end of the world were not needed. No White Lotus, no Wu Shi academy, no Black Dragon no...Lin Kuei.

Frost would never admit it, but she was sad to think that she would never see Sub-Zero again, sure they've had their differences and yes, maybe she tried to kill him, not once but twice. But he was the closest thing she had as a father figure, where others told her to stop fighting and be lady like, her sifu had trained her in the arts of destruction, given her new ways to tap into her own power. She would never forget the look of betrayal her sifu had when she snatched the Dragon Amulet from his chest, poor misguided Sub-Zero would have probably forgiven her should she had apologized (and not frozen herself) but she had to be pig headed didn't she? She had a perfect future as successor of the Lin Kuei monastery, but she had to be an arrogant stupid kid and try to grab all the power for herself and now she was banished here.

There was no alternative now, just like she decided to do once she woke up from her trauma after accidentally freezing herself the ninja girl knew she had to go all the way with the dark path. She may be many things but one of them was not being a wuss or a quitter and once her mind was on something she would follow it to the end, even if that end meant her dying twice. Why even try to go back anyway? The Lin Kuei wouldn't accept her back, not after killing about half their members and she was not going to wander in Outworld aimlessly, that place sucked. She would stay here, live like a wolf in a flock of pathetic sheep and since she has the power, why not use it? Crime was really more her jig and she did always want to unleash her full might on the unsuspecting citizenry. Stopping suddenly in the middle of the street, the assassin looked over her shoulder and smirked at the convenient location of a building she spotted.

" Jump City bank huh?"

It was a great idea! Something she always had wanted to do since she was a little girl.

She would rob a bank.

"We got another case." Robin said to his team mates who were all paying attention for a change, Cyborg, Beast Boy and Starfire sat at the sofa whilst Raven stood next to Robin himself to help his case, her figure covered entirely by her cloak. "Over twenty gang members found littering the streets yesterday all showing severe injuries, one of them encased in a block of ice." The boy wonder didn't need a police report this time, it was in the front page of the news and all he had to do to get his point across was to toss the newspaper on top of the coffee table to let his fellows get a glance at it.

"Phew" Cyborg whistled as he scanned through the details of the cover. "Pretty graphic pictures, collapsed rib cages, torn ligaments and quite possibly more than a few cranium fractures."

"Dang! Is that a bone sticking out of that guy's arm?" Questioned Beast Boy pointing at the picture of a gang member being lifted to an ambulance in a stretcher.

"The police said it was the same injuries they found on the latest batch I told you about, we got our basic no beating around the bush vigilante it seems, goes head straight into their HQ, shred the thugs to pieces and then moves out."

"I guess we're pretty certain it wasn't just a gang war was it?" Cyborg asked letting Beast Boy and Starfire scan the gruesome pictures, he and Robin understood that type of situation and could analyze it better than their more innocent counterparts.

"No doubt about it, the ones that got attacked were all from the same gang, if it had been something of that scale we'd find at least a few tracks from the gang that invaded. Not to mention that in both occasions several of them had been frozen over, we're dealing with the same person."

"How do we know that it's just one guy? Could be a group that is doing all this, it'd make more sense that just one person taking on entire gangs by themselves." Cyborg remained unconvinced which was exactly why Robin had Raven take matters over.

"Robin and I believe that is a being with super natural powers. Earlier this week I felt shards of great power from an universe not far from here be violently ripped out from its fabric and tossed our way, then these beatings occur. It is a too curious to label it as coincidence." Raven explained on her weary and somber voice, her tone enough to turn Cyborg's and Beast Boy's facial features grim.

Starfire on the other hand appeared undaunted. "Joys of joys! Another friend from a galaxy beyond who comes to share our struggle against the forces of evil, will we out and recruit him just like you did me?"

"I'm afraid that won't be happening Starfire, this guy is not at us at all. If he were, those thugs wouldn't have been beaten as badly and they'd be turn over to the police, not be left to their fate in the streets."

Starfire found Robin's reasoning more than a little heartless and piped up in her defense at of the strange vigilante. "But friend Robin, did I not at some point also showed violent tendencies such as this? Sadly, friend Raven and Beast Boy too have also succumbed to such hateful emotions, perhaps we just need to speak with this person and show them the better path."

Before Robin could even begin to translate Starfire's unnecessary fanciful speech into layman terms, the giant screen on the living room slid down and started buzzing in warning.

"Someone triggered the alarm at the city bank." Said Robin pulling out the control panel to access the bank's securty cameras. The rest of the group walking closer to the screen to get a better view of the situation at hand.

"I'm sensing a similar reading to the one you were talking about Robin." Raven said once the screen flickered on showing a spiky blue haired girl with a bandit mask cackling maniacally as people fleed from her, hands on her hips and her back turned to the camera.

"Seems like it's our guest from another dimension. Doesn't look too friendly to me, Starfire."

The Tamarenian bit her lip and looked down sadly as it seemed they wouldn't be getting a new Titan after all.

"It's a girl?? How could she have taken out all those people by herself?" Asked Cyborg with his cybernetic eye zooming in to get a better glimpse at the light weighted ninja girl. In turn the thief in question whirled around to face the camera feeling that someone was watching her and stared back, her violence filled blue eyes narrowed before blasting the camera with an ice beam to put it out of commission indefinitely.

"We'll have our answer soon enough. She's definitely our psycho ice user and she's shown her true colors." Said Robin shutting off the console and turning to his fellow super heroes. "Titans, lets move out!"

She had seen it done in movies all the time, but now it was the time to live her childhood dreams. It was about time that she got to do whatever she damn pleased with new found martial arts and powers, no longer have to listen to old fashioned sifu Sub-Zero about the warrior code and honor, it was time to get a little crazy.

Frost scanned the area quickly noticing a few security cameras on the four corners of the bank, a couple of armed guards that had apparently not noticed get in and a rather obvious vault door by the sidelines. Typical bank infrastructure, Frost felt as if she had walked into a cartoon, at least if it weren't for the before mentioned guards who weren't your typical fat, donut munching rent a cops in blue uniform. These guys had full body armor with helmets and were packing some serious firepower in the form of automatic machine guns which Frost didn't recognize, she might be very knowledgeable in hand to hand combat but she always hated to admit that she knew little about firearms other than the basic point and squeeze the trigger.

Still, Frost knew that armed as they might be the guards would offer minimal challenge to a Lin Kuei assassin.

"Excuse me madam, but I'm going to ask you to remove your maAAGGH!!"

One of the guards had finally approached Frost and inquired about her suspicious get up, only to find the young punk girl turning to face him, whack his weapon out of his hands with her forearm and press her hand onto his chest. Before he could react the guard felt his entire body grow numb with cold and grew rigid, immobile and completely frozen solid.

"Stop!!"

The other guard noticed the commotion and trained his weapon of Frost, but being the sneaky rascal that she is, the ninja ducked behind the frozen statue of the guard using it as cover and the other one found himself unable to shoot at his buddy.

Thinking fast, the rent a cop started radioing in for help, pressing his communicator quickly triggering the silent alarm that not only would notify the police but also the Titans as well. He felt as if he could pin the supervillian until help arrived since he had not seen her move out from behind the frozen statue of the guard, but as he quickly found out Frost could travel by other methods. The young kunoichi emerged from the ground right behind the guard as if she had jumped out of a frozen lake and holding the rifle of his frozen body proceeded to put the weapon across the guard's neck and squeeze tightly.

Fifteen seconds of strangulation and struggle later, the guard had collapsed into forceful sleep and Frost was pointing her stolen rifle at horrified bank clerks.

"I'm here to make retrieval!" Frost cackled "I've always wanted to say that, damn."

"I-I-I-I-I-I—" The bank clerk froze up in a stammering panic. Frost knew that if she had just come at the clerks pointing her hands at them threatening to freeze them it might have not had the desired effect, which is why she had ganked the rifle away from the guard even if she didn't actually know how to use it, but the bank clerks didn't know that.

"SPEAK UP OR I'LL BLAST YER HEAD OFF!!" The girl snarled putting the barrel of the gun on the clerk's forehead. Little did they both know it still had the lock on.

"I-I c-can't o-open the v-v-vault! N-need sp-special key" The clerk managed to finally say almost trembling out of his suit. The would be robber shook her head and pulled the clerk out from behind the counter by the neck of his shirt.

"Take me to it." She said before pointing the gun at the rest of the crowd "And don't nobody move you hear!??" She yelled before shooting an ice beam with her hand at one camera who felt was starting too much at her.

The panicked crowd went to the floor cringing not knowing what was the girl capable of and soon enough after poking the clerk in the back with the rifle several times he lead her to the vault he was talking about. It was a huge steel door with locks coming out of the wazoo and complicated looking levers.

"H-Here i-it is, b-but you won't be a-able to o-open it." The clerk continued to stammer, probably being the most scared he had ever been of his life of a teenager girl.

Frost snorted and stared at the door, silent, looking relaxed and deep in thought. The clerk had half his mind to start running away while Frost seemingly thought of a way to open the giant vault. But it soon turned out that she wasn't thinking about it for she already knew what to do, the young assassin was merely concentrating chi for a massive haymaker punch coming from her waist that SLAMMED into the door and sent it toppling inward and falling on the vault floor with a heavy clang noise.

"HAH! Test my might will you!!?? That's how its done!!" Frost yelled at the sniveling bank clerk who realize he had no hopes of doing anything against a girl that could punch open steel doors. "Now...umm..." Frost realized at that point she didn't actually have any bags she could fill up with money and had to get creative. "Put all the money you can in your jacket and then give it to me. Move punk!!!" Yelled the girl almost getting ready to club the clerk with her stolen rifle.

She would never get the chance as none other than the Teen Titans themselves entered the bank with a loud explosion, the kunochi looking abruptly at the entrance with wide eyes. She had been confident enough that the guards would be paralyzed for a good long while, maybe back at her tournament the freezing ability she had could only freeze her opponents for a few seconds before they shook free, but that was because she often fought demi-Gods, super powered beings or abyssal demons, average chums like the guard she froze up had no chance in hell to break free until the ice thawed. Which is why Frost was so surprise when help arrived so soon, no police agencies could respond so fast and with the guards out of commission who else could get in her way?

"Hold it right there!!" A boy of about her same age and similar hair due yelled at her, he was dressed in a full body red suit, had a cape and had a mask over his eyes with holes cut out so he could see. "Give up or we'll take you in by force."

Frost scowled under her mask at the group of children staring her down, quickly looking at them each in turn to wage their strengths and weakness for what she could tell. Two females were floating and three males were earth bound. One cyborg unit, a green skinned kid that reminded her of Reptile, the boy on the red suit was probably a ninja from the local clan, she sensed necromanctic power coming from the girl with the cloak and raw power from the orange skinned woman, perhaps a minor eldergoddess.

Problematic, but arrogant as she was Frost estimated she could take them all by herself. "Piss off!!" Said she pointing her rifle at them. Frost might be a prodigal ninja and martial artist despite her lack of experience, but as a bank robber she was an amateur at best. Instead of using the bank clerk as a hostage she tossed him aside and went ahead to try and pick a fight with all five Titans by her lonesome. Not only that but she never took into consideration that she didn't know how to use the weapon she stole. Frost squeezed the trigger which got stuck and no bullets ever flew out from the gun.

"What? Uh...." The kunoichi stared at her useless rifle in surprise before getting it knocked off her hands by one of Robin's batarangs. The ninja girl rubbed her palm where the projectile had hit her and looked up more angry that in pain. "Who the hell are you? You ain't no police, that much I can tell by the circus get up."

Robin smirked and was happy to obligue by answering her question. "We are the Teen Titans! Its our job to put criminal scum like you in jail!" The Titan leader said striking a pose, the rest of his team following suit for some strange reason they could not comprehend, they always found strange how Robin could be so serious at one point but when it came to showing off in front of people he turned into a real clown.

Frost arched a skeptical eyebrow at the answer she got. "Teen Titans huh? This dimension might have some entertainment for me after all." She grinned under her mask, somehow elated at the prospect of having some competition in this area. "Well Titans, I am Frost, and I challenge all of you at the same time to MORTAL KOMBAT!" Screamed the girl before running head long towards the Titan group, serrated ice daggers appearing on her hands.

"Titans, take her down!" Robin yelled as his team took positions, Cyborg and Beast Boy on the front while Starfire and Raven flanked behind the ninja girl.

Cyborg took a swing at Frost hitting her right in the forehead, or at least he thought that he hit the girl in the face, he realized his mistake when the woman shattered to pieces and the frozen ice shards went to attach themselves to his body to start freezeing him, an ice clone. The real Frost had ducked behind a statue of herself and amble around the frozen form of Cyborg who was already starting to break free just to run into a green panther that pounced her. As she fell backwards, put her feet under the panther's belly and sent it flying backwards with its own momentum, Beast Boy crashed landed onto Raven who then started carrying bridal style.

"Sorry Rae!"

Frost moved out of the way from an incoming blast that Starfire shot at her, zig zagging rapidly making herself a very difficult target. She didn't have to dodge for long as Starfire ceased her fire for fear of accidentally hitting Robin who moved in to block Frost's path, his staff coming into play as he thrust it forward to keep the spiky haired girl away.

"I won't let you escape, Frost."

"Who says I was trying to!? Just had to dodge yer friends so I could kill you first red!" The kunoichi cackled maniacally smacking the staff out of the way with one of her daggers before moving inside Robin's circle of defense.

"Robin!!" Starfire cried out trying to fly down to help her friend, Cyborg already breaking free with Raven and Beast Boy moving in from behind Frost.

"Wait! Stop!" Robin motioned to his team mates. "If it's a one on one duel what you want then bring it on. No need to make this mess bigger than already is."

"Aaah!! So you accept my challenge?" Frost said with glee as she charged at Robin. "You got a spine kid, too bad Imma have to rip it outta ya!!"

Frost threw a simultaneous kick to Robin's knee along with a double knife thrust to his face, causing the boy wonder to stand on his staff and jump behind the kunoichi. As he came down to kick her on her back, Frost whirled around and blocked with her forearm trying to bring her dagger on Robin's thigh. That didn't work either however as Robin slapped Frost in the elbow pushing her arm out of the way and twirling her over on her heel.

"Countering my counter!?? That's hella cheap!" Frost complained out loud making an X block with her daggers to block the incoming downward staff smash that was coming to her forehead.

"Its efficient, but an antiquated Tong Bei practitioner like you, wouldn't understand that"

Frost's eyes turned a furious shade of blue when Robin guessed right her fighting style, how dared that boy pretend to know more martial arts than her, aside from copying her hair style.

"How's this for antiquated!?" Shrieked the ninja girl kneeing Robin in the thigh to cripple his movement. The boy wonder felt his entire left leg cramp up and he retracted his bo staff quickly before Frost had the opportunity to finish him due to slowed movement.

Starfire cringed and resisted the urge to help her team mate, wanting desperately to just blast the ice ninja away, but she respected Robin far too much to go against his order.

"Yeah! You ain't laughing now are ya kid!?" Taunted the cryomancer again as she followed the limping Robin with the intent of stabbing him. Robin parried the first dagger strike going at his chest by smacking the flat side of the weapon with his open palm and then brought his staff square on Frost's shoulder blade with a thud, the girl's bone cracking.

In retaliation Frost snarled and made a quick jab with her left dagger at Robin's face meaning to stab his eye out. The Titan leader managed to weave out of the attack, though the serrated teeth from the ice dagger sliced open his forehead, blood gushing out and clouding his vision before they both reeled back.

"Dang…" Frost muttered unable to move her right hand, Robin was busy brushing the blood off his face with his forearm to try and do something else.

In the second or two where everyone was hesitating, Cyborg and the others closing in on the circle to pounce on Frost now that she seemed injured, police sirens were heard outside alerting the Lin Kuei assassin she had ran out of time.

"Screw y'all, you freaking tricked me." Frost said whilst cringing from the pain on her arm, she had much worst before but a crippling strike was still a crippling strike. Robin managed to grin as he finally brushed the blood he could off his eye mask and pointed at Frost.

"Like I said, you Tong Bei practitioners don't pay attention to your surroundings, fell for the oldest one in the books. Now give it up."

The ninja girl would have none of it, she shook her head and knelt down looking at first like if she was surrendering. "Yeaah…how about not?" Said she before dissolving into ice and melting into the ground.

"Can't pick her up with the scanners." Said Cyborg opening his forearm radar as soon as Frost had made a run for it. "Her body temperature is too cold for thermals to work, she's blending in with the rest of the building."

"Don't worry Cyborg." Said Robin as he held onto his head to force the bleeding to stop, Raven quickly moving to his side to heal the wound. "At least now we know what we're dealing with. Girl with her kind of attitude will come back for another go and when she does, we'll be ready."

"It is a shame that this Frost did not want to join us, she appeared to be of our same age as well. Oh Robin, did she hurt you?" Starfire fretted trying to get a closer look at Robin's wound.

"He's fine." Raven dead panned and got out of the way as the police finally poured in, late as usual.

"For an ice user she's quite the hot head." Beast Boy said attempting a poor pun. "I liked her hair do too, did you two go to the same salon Robin?" He continued to jab at the situation earning him a smack in the head by Cyborg. They've had enough for today and allowed the police to thaw out the guards Frost had encased in ice and deal with the repairs, the Titans would go home and purse the ninja no more today.

Far from there on top of a tall building, Frost materialized back still kneeling, cold sweat pouring from the sides of her head. She popped her shoulder back in place, jamming it back on it's appropriate socket painfully with her hand and pulled down her bandit mask. She had been defeated and that had gotten her on a bad mood.

"Titans, Eldergods damn them." Said she to herself sitting down to look at the setting sun with eyes of hatred, cursing at her newfound enemies and mumbled. "I'm gonna need some help if I hope to take 'em out."


	3. Night of the Wolf

Night of the Wolf

Robin sat on the sofa in the tower's main living room. Yesterday had been an afternoon like any other, answer the call to save the day, swoop in on unsuspecting evil doers, show them the error of their ways through force and then see them run for it with their tails between their legs.

All in all it should have been a good day. No causalities on his team, no civilians harmed, no money stole, acceptable injuries on himself only to keep his team off from harm's way. A successful mission despite not having captured the criminal, sometimes watching them flee is enough to secure that there would be no second attempt to try and break the law, they would return to their normal life, realize that they can obtain resources easily with an honest job, integrate with society once again or even in extreme cases turn their efforts to uphold justice. The strategies employed by his team, the Teen Titans, were not made to render criminals incapable of committing future evil deeds by crippling them or right out killing them, it was physiological warfare. Robin's mentor had taught him that well, show them the futility of their ways and they will inevitably change on their own accord, it was not their place to judge, only to protect the sheep from the wolves. Heroes were shepherds, not poachers, and it is the idealistic hope of the shepherd, though quite possibly unattainable, that the wolve will realize that they cannot compete with them and allow themselves to be domesticated like their dogs.

This is what was troubling Robin now, as he watched Cyborg and Beast Boy duke it out on a fighting game on the enormous TV screen. That girl, Frost, had been no regular wolf. She had gone in for sheep alone without back up, obviously without a plan, she was inexperienced, she was a wolf cub, yet somehow when she was assaulted with overwhelming odds, hopelessly outgunned and outmaneuvered, she didn't try to run as Robin had expected her to do. She fought, not out of desperation, but because she wanted to. Frost should have defended herself like a cornered animal, but somehow Robin felt like if he and his team were the ones in the defense. The girl, though being easily defeated due to their greater numbers, had countered back methodically and without regrets. Robin saw no fear on her eyes, whereas more experienced, numerous or powerful criminals would hesitate at the mere sight of the Teen Titans.

Frost had look so certain of her victory than for a moment Robin thought she was leading them all into a trap. But in reality it was just some deranged delusion of grandeur where the girl actually believed she could take them all on at once.

This troubled the boy wonder. How could some one be so foolish and yet posses such skill like that? More so, where did that girl learned Tong Bei Quan? Where did she get her ice powers? How was it that she could fly into a rage and still remain methodical of her actions?

She had no fear and she would attack again, Robin was certain of it and this time she will likely target the shepherds first before going for the sheep.

She was no regular wolf.

This wolf had rabies.

"Aw man!! What a cheater!!"

Robin's train of thoughts was interrupted by Beast Boy's cry as his character's life meter plummeted to zero and fell unconscious to the ground. The match ending with the announcer excitedly declaring a knockout.

"No way! I demand a rematch."

"You wait your turn BB, it's my man Robin's turn to get his butt kicked." Cyborg said with a confident grin as he snatched the controller away from a still sore Beast Boy and offered to Robin sitting on the further side of the couch.

Robin politely declined the offer and gave the controller back to Beast Boy "Skip me this turn Cyborg, I'm thinking of something."

Beast Boy happily accepted however and was already re-selecting his character without even objecting Robin's decision. It suited his needs after all.

Cyborg for his part smacked his lips. "Thinking about what?"

"My strategy to beat you in the next round." Robin responded with a condescending grin of his own. This got Cyborg all fired up and went to make sure Beast Boy wouldn't stand in the way of his victory over Robin.

"You'll have to go through me first!"

"I beat you once and I can do it again!"

Robin crossed his legs and relaxed on the sofa letting Cyborg and Beast Boy go at it once again. His eyes fixing on the TV screen as the ensuing virtual fight suddenly picked his interest. Something about the videogame felt awfully familiar in relation to their previous fight at the bank.

What was it that the girl had challenged them to? She had yelled something before she rushed head long into the Titan ranks, but Robin had forgotten.

"I do not purchase that at all, Robin." Came Starfire's soothing voice as she levitated next to Robin and sat beside him on the sofa's arm rester.

"Purchase?" Robin felt a smirk creeping on his lips at Starfire's improper use of English. "You mean 'I don't buy that' Starfire. It sounds awkward if you say it like that."

Starfire squeaked as she her team leader gave her a verbal slap in the wrist and nodded. "I apologize, but I believe my sentence is still clear?"

Robin nodded "It is. What is it that you don't buy from me Star?"

"You are not thinking of the gaming toy, it does not make your brows furrow like that. There is something else troubling you friend Robin."

That was quite the pleasant surprise Starfire gave him. Though she maintained her infantile and innocence disposition she was beginning to notice people's poker faces better, Robin made mental note to guard his thoughts better from now on and continue "Very observant of you Star, and I have no doubt you know what's in my mind then." Robin said wanting to know to what extent did Starfire's newfound deduction techniques extended.

The Tamarenaian thought for a moment, her lips pursed as she looked up to the ceiling as if the answer was floating up there somewhere and was trying to look for it. Perhaps it was after all, because she soon came up with something and her emerald eyes rested once more on Robin.

"Is it the encounter from yesterday?"

The boy wonder simply nodded, he wouldn't keep secrets like that from Starfire, there was no reason to anyway. "Yeah, it is." He said and went to look at the TV screen once again, Beast Boy was making quite the combat on the second round but Cyborg still presented a challenge. It would be a hard fight for both of them this time around.

"Does the girl Frost trouble you so, friend Robin?"

It was then that Robin realized the reason of Starfire's uncharacteristic behavior. The boy wonder arched an eyebrow and glanced once more to the bronze alien beauty. She was indubitably trying to talk Robin into seeking her out and offer her membership of the Teen Titans, but Robin had no clue why Starfire had this idea all of the sudden.

"I could ask you the same thing Star. You've been awfully concerned with her ever since Raven said she came from another dimension. Do you know something I don't?"

Like a naughty child caught in the act, Starfire blushed furiously and bit on her lower lip as she trained her eyes to her shoes now, evading Robin's gaze. She had much to learn in the ways of verbal jousting, Robin could now read her like a book by the expressions she was making.

"It is not what you think friend Robin." The Tamarenean attempted to defend herself which amused Robin even more so, Starfire was so cute when she got like that and Robin had to admit it was a guilty pleasure of his to tease her like that.

"Oh? And what do you think I'm thinking?" This made Starfire stammer even more. Robin was not fighting very hard not to giggle as the girl twiddled her fingers, darted her eyes everywhere desperately trying to avoid locking eyes with Robin and even began sweating a little from her forehead.

What she said next however, surprised Robin. "She reminds me a lot of you." Starfire said.

"What?" The boy wonder was aghast at this development. What could prompt Starfire to say such a thing? Compare him to a bloodthirsty criminal will she? Robin didn't need to explain himself further to Starfire as she began to elaborate least Robin got the wrong idea.

"I-I cannot rightly explain it friend Robin. But when you two engaged in glorious hand to hand battle. Your movements were so in synch, like a beautiful yet deadly dance. It was as if you were fighting Red-X all over again." Robin blinked at that, he hadn't thought about it like that and Starfire had a point. "Her violence, it was as entrancing as yours friend Robin."

Though her choice of words were questionable, Starfire was on to something here and Robin followed the path his friend had opened for him. Looking at things now from the perspective of the Tamarenean, Robin rested his chin on his knuckles and glanced once more to the fight in the screen. Beast Boy and Cyborg were now the final round, one victory for each one, this would decide the true winner.

"There may be a reason for that." Robin began as he revised carefully in his mind what had happened yesterday. "You see Star, from what I could tell this Frost is an avid practitioner of an ancient Chinese style of martial arts called Tong Bei Quan. It is rarely seen outside monasteries and an extremely low percentage of fighters are proficient in it." Robin grimaced as he saw Starfire's confused gaze and attempted to explain it on simpler terms. "Her fighting style, its like mine but a lot older. It's like a riot policeman fighting a medieval knight. Does that make sense?"

"Hmm..." Starfire tapped her pursed lips with her index finger in thought "Oh! Like a Flergian guard taking on an Imperial Vlarkershin?"

"Uhh...." Robin, having no idea what was Starfire referring to, decided to simply nod and agree. "Yeah, just like that."

"My, that is odd is it not?"

"Yes Star, very."

Whether Starfire understood what Robin meant was anyone's guess. In the grand scheme of things however, Robin knew it was irrelevant if his Tamarenian friend realized the difference between their style of martial arts. After all, if Starfire had shown a natural inclination for such fighting styles, Robin would have long ago ensured the alien girl had received the proper training to make her a master. Much to Robin's despair, Starfire lacked the mental discipline to be a proper martial artist, Robin felt a frustration similar to Raven when she tried to teach the young alien princess how to meditate.

Speaking of which, at that very moment Raven walked into the living room and quickly walked towards the group gathered by the sofa. Her hood was pulled back which revealed the girl's grim expression, or in the case of Raven a lot more grim than usual.

Robin noticed this miles away and assumed the worst. Judging by Raven's dark bags under her eyes this situation was troubling even more than himself.

"Trouble?" Robin guessed as Raven approached him and the group.

"Trouble." Raven confirmed Robin's worries. Starfire noticed the bad shape her friend was in and with her nurturing instincts kicking in tried to reach for Raven's face, but the sorceress pulled away and instantly pulled her hood down again. There was no time for tomfoolery right now, something really was wrong.

"What's the matter?" Robin said growing impatient as he grasped Starfire's hand and sooth the girl's easily bruised feelings, when Raven turned down her offer of assistance.

"No doubt about it. That girl from yesterday, Frost, is an invader from the dying dimension I told you about. Her life signature is nothing like anything I've sensed before. The soul patterns are twisted and warped by energy I can't understand. She seems human enough, albeit one with a lot of negative thoughts, but her energy has been corrupted by something else, something that at first glance appears demonic to me. I think we may be dealing with someone akin to a demi-God."

Robin grimaced "That'd explain why she didn't hesitate to try and take us all on in the bank."

"It gets worse." Raven continued "I stayed up all night yesterday trying to see if I could scan the city for Frost's energy signal. Instead I found she's brought some company."

"There's more of them!?"

Raven nodded. "It's too early to say if we are looking at a full scale invasion. The energy patterns were scattered, unorganized, they felt lost. But they are undeniably very powerful and all of them are plagued with the same negative feelings this Frost exuded. They are as if vicious as her if not more."

"Wonderful.." Robin clenched his teeth and thought of what this situation meant. Dozens of super powered psychopaths from another dimension running around Jump City was not his idea of a good week.

"We may have to contact Titans East. If we can attack separated pockets of them en-masse then we could prevent the situation spinning out of control."

"NOOOOOOO!!!"

Robin, Starfire and Raven whirled around when they heard the panicked screamed of Beast Boy, who leapt out of the sofa and threw his controller on the ground.

"Beast Boy!! What's the matter with you!!?"

"I was just about to beat Cyborg and the stupid screen flickered off!!! THIS ISN'T FAIR!!"

"Better luck next day BB" Cyborg chuckled as he calmly set his own controller down.

Pointedly ignoring Beast Boy's protests, Robin went to check on what had happened to the TV screen and uploaded the feedback the computer was trying to transmit.

"It's a silent alarm, triggered by a jewelry store. Titans, there's trouble."

"Is it the Frost girl again?" Starfire asked curiously as she stared up at the yet blank screen.

"Let me see, I'm trying to hack into the store's security camera." Robin typed a few overrides on the keyboard and the screen flickered on showing the inside of a pricy jewelry store in the downtown mall.

"That does not look like our spiky haired guest." Starfire was kind enough to point the obvious. Indeed, today's assailant was not Frost.

Inside the jewelry store the Titans could see a tall, muscled, dark skinned man with a blue bandanna and feathers on his head. He wore a brown vest, jeans and fancy braided moccasins. His face was painted with two bright red lines that went from his forehead, past his eyes and down his cheeks as if they were bloody tears. There were no pupils in his eyes.

"Who invited Hiawatha to the party?" Cyborg said mockingly thinking the man's Tonto get up to be quite ridiculous. Though for all the feeling of being out place the man proved dangerous enough as he hoisted a store clerk over his head with one arm and flung him out the store through a window with minimal effort.

"This Hiawatha seems very evil!" Starfire cried in concern causing Robin to shake his head. "Don't listen to Cyborg, Star, that's not his name. I'll explain later but now we need to move! Raven, is this guy also from the dead dimension you were talking about?"

Raven stood quiet for a while, her body covered by her long cloak hiding all emotion to outsiders. It almost looked like if she hadn't heard Robin as she didn't respond for a second or two, so much that the boy wonder was about to call for her again when she abruptly spoke up.

"…Yes!"

That was a bit disconcerting and Robin tried to inquire what had happened, though the sorceress just shook her head.

"It's nothing. Let's go quickly. This guy will start killing people if we don't stop him."

Robin nodded and commanded his team to move out. "Titans Go!

***********

"Attention! This is the Jump City Police! We have you surrounded! Come out with your hands up and surrender!!"

The police had arrived early for a change. This particular individual hadn't bothered with the alarm system and triggered almost as soon as he had started wrecking the store. They had already set a perimeter around the store with patrol riot shields and knocked over benches since they could not drive their patrol cars inside the building.

For all their impressive force, the robber looked undaunted and flicked aside a mall guard who had made the mistake of responding to the alarm too quickly. The guard went flying, screaming all the way, and landed somewhere in the second floor, causing the ire of the police stationed there at such insolent spectacle.

"Stand down or we will shoot!!" The police captain yelled through his loud speaker and his men loaded their rifles trying to look intimidating.

The bandit just smirked and started to slowly raise his hands up. His smile was feral and animalistic, like staring at the face of a hyena.

"Do not fear brave ones." Spoke the robber, his voice calm and collected like a kind preacher addressing an audience. "Rejoice and be merry, for today, you return to the loving embrace of the Earth Mother. Truly you are blessed, what greater joy is there than to meet your ancestors?"

There was a silence in the police crowd at the strange vocabulary of this fellow which left them aghast at what to do. That didn't sound like he was giving up, but they weren't sure if he was still resisting too. In reality, the police had no idea what he just said and the captain leaned down to one of his more 'poetic' officers.

"What the hell is this guy saying??"

"I think he's implying we are going to die, chief."

Oh so that was it.

"That so huh? Sniper, take the shot." The captain called on his radio and the sniper positioned on the second floor of the mall acknowledged.

"Roger." He trained his scope on the robber, who was still smirking strangely with his hands out as if going to hug someone, and aimed for his leg.

His blaster shot, hitting the man's leg immediately and bounced directly back at the sniper. "Wha.." The shot broke through his lens, pierced his goggles, went through his eye, shot out on the other side of his skull and killed him instantly.

"What in the hell was that!!?? Sniper! Come in sniper!"

"Officer down, chief."

The robber continued smiling tauntingly and spoke "Come, hurry brave ones. Come and be one with the earth once more."

"That sunnuva—"

"Stand down captain. We're here to help." Before the police chief could issue any more orders, Robin appeared next to him, along with the rest of the Titans, and calmed him down.

"What's the situation?"

"Robin! This whacko here just strolled up the jewelry store and started tossing people around! I had a sniper take a shot at his leg from afar, but nothing happened to him and next thing I know I have one dead sniper."

"Has he mentioned any demands?"

"No, he just walked out and started reading some poetry or somethin'. I dunno what to do, go kick his ass will ya?"

Robin thought for a moment. It was odd that someone would go through the problems of assaulting a store and not take any money. Not only that, but he didn't seem to want to run, there had plenty of opportunities to escape as he clearly had no problem dealing with the mall guards. Why wait until the police arrived?

"Cyborg?" Robin turned to his second in command who started scanning the robber's energy signature.

"Hmm… the guy has an electromagnetic field around him. But I don't know where it's coming from, my scanners can't detect any mechanical components inside him. Thermal readings are going crazy though, it's like the dude has a bunch of parasites inside him wiggling around his body."

"They are spirits." Raven interrupted, making Cyborg, Robin and the police chief turn to her. "I recognize this type of magic. It's shamanism; he is using shamanism to lock evil spirits inside of him and drawing power from them. It's them that are forming the barrier, but they are also pretty much controlling his body and mind too."

"Are you saying he is possessed?" Robin asked growing curious.

"He might as well be. His soul is definitely not in control of his body anymore that is for certain. Or at least, not full control."

That wasn't good. If this was indeed the case then Robin could not apprehend the bandit just like that since he wasn't in control of his own actions, his code dictated that he first needed to find out what was driving the man to do these awful things.  
As such, Robin decided to confront him and despite his teammates and the police objections, the Titan leader boldly stepped forth and addressed the man directly.

"Who are you!?" Robin shouted as he stood at a distance, yet directly in front of the thief.

"I am Nightwolf." The man responded simply and stood silent afterwards, not feeling to add any titles of grandeur to his name.

This wasn't useful; Robin wanted him to keep talking out of his own volition, anything to get a clue of what was controlling this Nightwolf character.

"What do you want Nightwolf? Why are you trying to steal this jewelry store" He continued, to which Nightwolf responded with the same simplicity as before.

"These jewels are meaningless to me. What I truly seek is death."

That was quite disconcerting for everyone to hear and Robin stammered when he heard such a thing coming from the possessed shaman.

"Wh-what?"

"Kill me!!!" Now Nightwolf was shouting, his serene and confident expression suddenly twisting with pure rage. "Kill me and release me from this prison!!!"

"Can do." The police captain muttered, though he did it loud enough so that Robin overheard and shook his head back to the police

"No! This man is being controlled! He cannot be held responsible for his actions." Said Robin before addressing the shaman once more "Listen Nightwolf, I am Robin, leader of the Teen Titans and we can help you without killing you. We know of the spirits that are dwelling inside of you and if you surrender we can find a way to purge them from your being."

Nightwolf closed his eyes and his shoulders sagged, his arms finally lowering as he finally look like he was giving up.

"The magnetic shield is down." Cyborg said as he checked on his scanners and Robin started walking towards Nightwolf to see if he was indeed giving up.

"Fools!!" It did not look that way however, Nightwolf's pupiless white eyes flared open and green fire like energy started to surround his body. "You curs are completely useless!! Ignorant as you are of how to properly grant a warrior death!!! It seems to me that I must educate you lot!! GRAAAAAAAAH!!!!"

Nightwolf lost it at this point, and charged Robin head on so fast that the young martial artist only had a fraction of a second to react. It seemed to Robin that Nightwolf was being assisted by some supernatural means, because he sprinted towards Robin position in what felt like it was the speed of sound and rammed him with a shoulder bash.

Robin's reflexes were still quite impressive however and whereas a regular person should have taken the blow straight on the face, Robin brought his arms up to defend himself and cushioned the blow enough so he was only pushed back several meters.

"Robin!!" Starfire cried out trying to help Robin get back up after he fell, but the boy wonder waved her off.

"I'm fine! Titans! Defensive positions!!"

Placing his team's safety before his own, Robin issued the rest of the Titans to defend themselves from an oncoming charging possessed warrior. Not a moment too soon at that, Nightwolf was already reaching a fallen Robin ready to pounce him.

Raven would have none of that and levitated a nearby steel bench and sent it flying towards the shaman. Though much to the sorceress surprise, Nightwolf brought his forearm down on the bench like some kind of karate chop and cleaved it in half with his bare hands literally breaking Raven's concentration with the object.

"Woa..." Raven mouthed quite surprised at that before Cyborg and Starfire both tried their hands at stopping Nightwolf, each sending their respective projectiles at him; Cyborg with his sonic blaster and Starfire with her energy beams which she fired from her hands.

It was unfortunate that neither of them consulted the police captain before doing that as Nightwolf brought up his reflective force field again and much like he had done to the sniper before them, he bounced the super heroes' powers back to them, hitting Starfire with Cyborg's sonic blaster and Cyborg with Starfire's beams respectively causing them both to cry out in pain and get sent reeling backwards.

"Oh yeah, forgot he could do that." Cyborg said as he tried to pry himself of a wall he got imbedded on.

Now it was Beast Boy's turn who charged forth directly infront of Nightwolf's path and blocked him by turning into a boa constrictor. "I got 'im!!" The changeling cried out just before wrapping the shaman with his snake body and cause him to tumble forward and fall on his chest. As Beast Boy started squeezing to suffocate Nightwolf into submission, he found out that he wasn't the only with shape shifting powers as Nightwolf tapped into his animal totem and shaped shifted into a timber wolf.

Even while transformed, Beast Boy's eyes boggled at this development right before the shape shifted Nightwolf grabbed a hold of his neck with his jaws. Nightwolf shook the boa constrictor Beast Boy to make him lose his grip on him and slammed him repeatedly on the ground until Beast Boy transformed back into his humanoid form, the wolf's jaws still clinging to his neck. "That's....cheating..." Beast Boy whinned weakly and lay on the floor with spirals on his eyes.

Nightwolf transformed back into a human then and spat on the ground "It is not cheating, that was my animality." Explained he before turning to the waiting police squadron and raised his hands up to them. "What are you waiting for imbeciles!?? Shoot me!! SHOOT ME ALREADY!!"

Despite his obvious death wish, it was clear that Nightwolf had brought his shield up again and in the event of the police shooting a barrage of blasters at him they would all inevitably commit suicide as the bullets would just bounce and hit them. Robin had no clue what was Nightwolf trying to accomplish with this, but he couldn't allow any more deaths and surprised Nightwolf by landing a flying kick to his ribs.

Now the police couldn't shoot him because Robin was too close, but it appeared that the Titan had the situation under control and started cheering him on instead.

"Take him out Robin!"

"You can do it!!"

"Stand down, Nightwolf!" Robin said pulling out his retractable bo staff and pointed it Nightwolf. "We don't want to hurt you!"

"Then you are a deluded idiot." The shaman retorded as he straightened up and summoned weapons of his own; two green burning tomahawks appeared on his hands and confronted Robin. "For the only way you can stop me is by granting me the death I so desperately seek."

"There is another way Nightwolf, you must fight whatever it's controlling you. Come on!!" It was obvious that Robin would not kill the shaman warrior even if he had the opportunity to do so. Even if Nightwolf kept asking for it, that would go against everything Robin believed in. Besides just by looking at Nightwolf, Robin could see that he had a noble spirit, this was not something the man would normally do just by glancing at his solemn and regretful expression. His facial features betrayed his movements, though he grinned and roared in anger appearing as if he was enjoying the conflict, there were moments where Robin could see restrain on the shaman's face. There had to be a way to break the spell.

However, Nightwolf didn't think so and shook his head. "You do not understand. I cannot fight it! For the safety of the denizens of this world I must be destroyed." The warior winced and whirled his tomahawks before charging at Robin again. "If you care at all for your friends then you must kill me!!!"

Nightwolf brought both his tomahawks down on Robin, who quickly parried them with an over head block of his staff. The warrior was not pulling any punches however and went to land a knee blow on Robin's stomach causing him to lose most of his wind.

Robin grunted and stepped back, though he controlled his respiration to not lose consciousness and get ready for Nightwolf's next assault. When he attacked again, Robin was ready thanks to the adrenaline the knee strike the stomach caused and watched the shaman's movements carefully. Nightwolf sent a snap frontal kick at Robin, who evaded and swung his bo staff at Nightwolf's other leg injuring his knee. The shaman was relentless though and though he cried in pain he used the close quarters to smash Robin's nose with an elbow strike before bringing down the butt of his tomahawk on Robin's skull.

The Titan was hurt now, but he was also enraged due to the pain and did not hold back. Thrusting his bo staff at Nightwolf's chin like a spear, Robin uppercut the shaman to push him away before sending a punch to Nightwolf's exposed stomach and knock the air out of him, repaying the blow from earlier. Nightwolf didn't appear to try and control his breathing and bent down holding his stomach which caused Robin to take the opportunity to smack him in the side of the head with his staff and send him to the ground.

"Yes...good..." Nightwolf said while grinning and wiping the blood from his lips. "Now...finish me."

Robin couldn't simply let him get up, at the very least he had to knock Nightwolf out to put an end to his rampage. And so, the boy wonder raised his staff ready to deliver a downward blow to the shaman's head and....

Got promptly kicked in the face.

"Yo!! Wazzap!!??

"It's that bitch!!!" The police officers cried in horror as none other than Frost appeared on the scene. She had melted down from the mall's ceiling, landed next to Robin and went to deliver a tornado kick to Robin's face which sent him skidding where Starfire and Cyborg were.

"What'd you say to me!? You boys need to chill out!" Frost cackled and sent a wave of ice which froze half the police force ready to open fire on her. The rest of the police went to take cover for fear of getting frozen themselves, they all had read reports of what had happened to the guards in the bank yesterday and it had taken them hours to thaw them.

"Frost!!" The Titan's all cried out in unison.

"What are you doing here!?" Robin said grabbing hold of his jaw. "Get away from Nightwolf!"

"No can do chum! I got some things that I gotta take care of with Nighty here" The ice kunoichi laughed arrogantly before jumping on the fallen Nightwolf and straddled his hips.

This didn't sit too well with the warrior, who snarled and started wiggling like a trapped animal "What treachery is this!? Get off me this instant woman!"

"Hush up now and hold yer breath." Frost said before waving at the Titans who were getting ready to swarm her "See you guys layta!"

As she said that, Frost turned into ice along with the warrior she was using as a cushion and melted into the floor disappearing out of sight.

"No!!!" Robin cried out and slammed his fists on the ground where Nightwolf and Frost had disappeared. "This can't be happening!! Cyborg! Please tell me you got a fix on their location."

"Umm...I'm afraid that's a negative." Cyborg said regretfully and checked the compartment on his forearm. "She's doing that lowering the temperature trick again, thermals can't pick her up and it's the same for pissed off Hiawatha."

"Shoot! Raven?" Robin said and turned to the sorceress who was touching her head, her eyes closed.

"Hmm...I can still feel the shaman's presence, but I can't pin point it. When our friend Frost got hold of him she also froze whatever entity was controlling him. He is still in the city, but I don't know which way they went."

"We'll take care of it." The police captain intervened. "I'll call air reinforcements and have my men secure the perimeter. It'll take us a bit to unfreeze my men though, but we can track those nut cases down."

"Thanks captain." Robin said with a grim expression on his face "I'll get Starfire to unfreeze your men. Although I'm sorry we couldn't stop either of them."

"Relax kid, you did well. If it weren't for you I'd be seeing a lot more of my men dead and civilian casualties for sure. That reflective shield was something I did not expect."

While the police chief mentally cursed for giving the order to that sniper to fire, Starfire approached an equally sore looking Robin who kept his eyes on the floor.

"Friend Robin, why do you think that the Frost girl took Nightwolf Hiawatha for? Do they know each other?"

"I don't know Star. But whatever it is Frost wants him for, it's definitely not good." Robin blinked a bit and then turned to Cyborg "And could you please stop calling him Hiawatha? You're confusing Star."

"Sorry sorry." Cyborg rolled his eye and kept checking on his scanners to see if anything else came up.

Robin closed his eyes then and reflected on today's encounter. Nightwolf huh? He shook at the irony of this, now he was literally dealing with wolves with rabies, packs of them even. Whatever it was that Frost sought from Nightwolf, Robin knew that it would just make things a lot more complicated.

*********

"Was that really necessary!?"

Outside the Jump City limits in a forested area, Nightwolf sat shaking with cold as he rubbed two sticks together desperately trying to make a fire. In front of him was a relaxed and bored looking Frost, who just lounged there watching Nightwolf struggling with the improvised bone fire not bothering to help him at all.

"My bad." She chirped sarcastically, obviously not regretting the deed at all.

"I am not impervious to cold like you accursed Lin Kuei ninja. The next time you wish to turn me into ice you damn better warn me about it!! Ah, there we go, thank the spirits."

Nightwolf managed to get the fire going and blew gently on it before setting some dry leaves. In no time it was alive and healthy providing the shaman with some much needed warmth. Frost had said nothing after that and neither did Nightwolf, being far too busy trying to get his body back on the positive degrees. After a long while of awkward silence and seeing that the young girl in front of him had no intention to start a conversation, Nightwolf decided to indulge to see what was it that she wanted.

"You look strangely familiar woman. I know you do I not?"

"Yep!" Frost answered happily and pulled down her bandit mask so that the shaman could see her girlish face. The devilish smirk she had triggered something inside Nightwolf's mind which made him nod.

"Ay, I see. You are Sub-Zero's apprentice, Frost. He spoke highly of you, though the last time I inquired about your existence he said you had turned rouge, which wouldn't include going out of your way to save lives."

"That's funny ya know?" Frost responded "Cuz last time I heard, ya were one of the good guys Nighty. Word in the streets was that yer the one responsible for sealing the dragon emperor Onaga and junk. What'choo doing holding up jewelry stores at the mall and beating up cops."

The shaman closed his eyes, Frost had a point, he knew that this was uncharacteristic of him. "It is my Sin Eater nature. I am losing control over the spirits I hold within me. Their voices come at me louder and louder every day, urging me to commit horrendous deeds upon innocents."

Frost listened and smiled thinking of this as some kind of camp fire story, Nightwolf had gotten her attention the moment he had said 'doing horrendous deeds on someone' and so the young kunouchi pressured him to keep going. "Go on."

Nightwolf obliged. "After the fight of Armageddon I was sent here to this unfamiliar dimension where the evil spirits became even stronger. I attempted to contact an Apache reservation to see if I could pass the burden to shaman from this dimension or of they could at least shed some insight as to why I was not freed from this self inflicted curse. To my despair, the Apache from here do not have a Sin Eater tradition and did not know what I was talking about, it was quite distressing."

"Aight." Frost shrugged finding the information tedious as she wanted Nightwolf to skip to the good part. "Why were ya trying to get shot up at the mall though? I heard ya talking all that stuff about wanting to die. It sounded hella weird."

"If I were to fall in battle the spirits within me would be purged and sent to another realm where they would be punished for their sins. This was not an issue in the tournament as at the very least could have been granted an honorable death, but here Mortal Kombat does not exist and it only makes me a danger to people rather than a savior. Alternatively if I were to try to take my own life, the spirits would simply be released and they would go and posses other individuals which would make it even worse."

Frost smacked her lips and leaned back on a tree "That sounds like suckage. But how come yer now going ballistic right now? You seem to be in control of yer own actions right now."

"I know, this is because the only thing that seems to quite down the spirits' wrath is to engage violence. Whenever I fight for long periods of time they can be muffled and grow quite as they expend their power, going to sleep inside me."

"So what you're saying is that yer all spent out right now?" Frost asked

"Ay." Nightwolf nodded "You could say I have cooled down."

"Got that right!" The kunoichi giggled and snapped her fingers at the shaman, who for a moment did not know what she was referring to. It took him a bit to realize his own pun and mentally cursed for walking into that one but scoffed it off.

"It is of no use however. By tomorrow the voices will have returned strong as ever and they will torture me until I give in to their despicable demands." Then Nightwolf stood up and pointed down at Frost "As such it is imperative that I be killed in battle! Lin Kuei ninja Frost, I challenge you to Morta—"

"Now now now, hold up hold up hold up." Frost said waving her hands to interrupt Nightwolf before he finished that dreaded sentence. "Let's not get carried here. As much as I'd love to kick your arse right now I'm in a bit of a pickle here myself. Maybe you haven't realized it but I'm also in another friggin' dimension with no way of going back! Yer the only one that I know from my realm and that is at least a start. Could you at least tell me if you've seen any other guys from the tournament?"

The shaman furrowed his eyebrows and thought. "Good question and I must say that I'm uncertain. I'll admit that I had given it much thought as my priority was to clear my spirits." He tapped his chin "All I remember is wrestling with the mentalist Ermac before being sent here, but other than that no, I believe you are the only I've seen from the tournament."

Frost grumbled "Wonderful and I don't suppose you know of a way to get back neither."

"No, my magic is not that strong. Only Raiden and Fujin were capable of transporting us from realm to realm, I am sorry."

"Nah, don't apologize." Frost said as she stood up "It suits me juss fine, because you know what? I got a proposition for ya Nighty."

This caught the shaman off guard "What are you suggesting?"

"An alliance!! A deadly alliance!" Nightwolf blinked causing Frost to snicker "Just kidding! That was juss my little joke there, couldn't help myself. But seriously though I know of a way how we can help each other."

"What would that be?"

"I need protection. You've already tangled up with the Titans haven't ya? They're a messed up bunch and I gone done and got on their wrong side. Now I got the police and those guys searching for me everywhere. If you were willing to back me up I'd spar with ya every day and help ya quiet down the voices until we find I way to cure ya. Plenty of other Indians and magicians here that can help out, ya don't need to go rely just on the Apache."

It was difficult to see where was Nightwolf looking since he had no pupils, but by the way his eyeballs moved it was clear he was rolling them. "Do not come and seek aid from me, your sifu Sub-Zero warned me of your personality. The Titans are defenders of justice and no doubt you antagonized them by performing some petty crime. I recall overhearing something about hooligans getting beaten and frozen in the streets as well, now I am certain that it was no doubt your doing. Forget it young one, I will not help you commit evil deeds."

"Damn it Nightwolf!!!" Frost shrieked at him looking quite enraged, Nightwolf had to admit that he suddenly felt intimidated by how the young girl could get so irritated so quickly. "You need to stop being so freaking ignorant!!! Don't you understand?? We ain't in earthrealm anymore, all this BS about good and evil, it don't mean jack squat here! You think your eldergods, or your spirits or Raiden for that matter gives a damn about you?? Hell no!! Why would he allow you to get sent to another dimension with all those friggin' spirits inside of ya to drive ya nuts huh!?"

Nightwolf scowled, it hadn't occurred to him that Raiden had forsaken him. Until now he had just gone quietly about accepting his fate as some kind of accident. "Sure I messed up back then with sifu and sure, all yer sacrifices were maybe honorable on our home dimension, but here it means nothing! Absolutely nothing!!!! That's not being selfless Nighty, its being straight up stupid! Why do ya let everybody take advantage of you like that son!? Where is your Apache pride and shiz??"

The shaman stood quiet, somewhat annoyed that he was getting chastised by a girl much younger and inexperienced than him. Last time he checked it was him who was giving the pearls of wisdom to the newer generations of warriors and not the other way around. It looked like he could still learn a thing or two from other fighters despite his experience.

"Look, all I'm saying is, why throw your life away for nothing man? I ain't asking ya to scalp nobody. Ya want me to stop beating up low lives? That's alright, let's focus on other things okay? I just want money and a reputation, a thing I can't do here by myself with the Titans breathing down my neck. Think about what yer friends would want, they wouldn't want you to die and we can, like, steal from mean big ol' mean corporations and shiz making us total good guys. You'd get people to fight and I'd get some cash, hell, I could even give you some of it too! You could, I dunno, give it to your reservation or something."

There was a long silence from Nightwolf, he had never really tried to use his powers for his own cause, it had always been about Mortal Kombat, saving the world from evil and all that good stuff. Frost's words rang true in his mind, had he never really realized the potential he really had? If he could use the evil spirits to help his own people, it would still be within the Sin Eater code of ethics' limits and a noble endeavor indeed. Perhaps there was hope yet.

"I can keep a percentage of our profits?"

"Yeah, fifty fifty. Ninja's honor and all that."

"And I can do as I please with it?"

"Go blow it all off in a casino for all I care."

"And we would not kill anyone that does not deserve it?"

"Totally, save our fatalities for extreme occasions. These guys are undeserving of our full skill anyways, Nighty."

Nightwolf had nothing else to lose then and nodded. "Very well young Frost. I am at your disposal, though I do have a request."

"Yeah?"

"Could you please stop calling me Nighty? It sounds childish."

"Aaw! But it's cute!!" Frost chirped and went to stretch Nightwolf's cheeks who went to smack her away irritably.

"Alright alright, but it's gonna slip every now and then just letting ya know."

"I guess I'll live."

This was a great victory for Frost however who turned around facing the city and grinned maliciously. "Sweet!! Now to seek out more lost tournament participants, find a crib were we can all live and we'll be well on our way to strengthen the Konquerors' hold of this city!!"

A pause. "The what?"

"The Konquerors! You know, if we're gonna make a team to antagonize the Titans I'd figured we'd need a snazzy name too. So I went with the Konquerors, waddaya think? Pretty frigging badass no?"

Nightwolf stared daggers at Frost, sat down and went to lay on his side giving her his back.

"What? What are you doing Nighty?"

"I am going to sleep. Something tells me I will need all the strength I can muster to survive this ordeal."


	4. A dance to remember

Author's Notes:

Yes, I know it's been probably more than a year since I've updated. All I know is that I'm back in track now and will probably be posting much more frequently.

A few warnings before we continue our story. This chapter contains shoujo-ai, which means girl on girl.. oh and break dancing.

Don't say I didn't give you a heads up.

##########################################

Early morning in the forested area outside Jump City.

If asked Frost would openly say she's not the type of gal that keeps her word. She's a kunoichi, a ninja, a rogue, a thief, a rascal, a punk..a teenager girl for crying out loud! One needed not know of her history to know that she was only looking out for herself in this world, why, one look at her appearance at it'll be clear she's the stereotypical irresponsible youth. At least without taking in consideration one very glaring exception, fighting. This is what differentiated Frost from any other girl her age; sure she's very materialistic, self-absorbed, concerned about her looks, perhaps even interested in fashion like any other girl However, when it came to fighting, the girl is obsessed, utterly and hopelessly addicted to the gory bloodletting glory that is hand to hand combat, far more than what can be considered healthy. Being down right sadistic, even psychopath murderers would be scared of her, at least they have an excuse being insane, Frost didn't.

Which is why, Nightwolf found it very surprising when Frost didn't flake out on her promise to fight him whenever he needed to. In a way it was very relieving, to know that this young girl he had entrusted his sanity could be depended on. On another, Nightwolf had just realized that Frost was just a little too eager to fight him in the morning. No sooner had the shaman awaken from his slumber, sensing that the spirits trapped within him were stirring, did he find himself pounced by an overly enthusiastic blood thirsty cryomancer.

"Now, last time I checked. It was I who was harboring evil spirits within my own body, not you, young Frost." Nightwolf said as he went on the defensive, putting his arms up taking the punches aimed to his face on his muscled, scarred forearms.

"You ain't trying to back out on your morning exercise on me are ya Nighty?" Frost giggled as she rained punches down on Nightwolf's defenses up to distract him, before sending a lariat kick down to his leg forcing him to open up. "Come on! You need this remember!" The blow caused the shaman to lower his guard earning him a right hook to the jaw sending the Apache brave staggering backwards.

Rubbing his jaw, Nighwolf realized that he may have been too quick to judge the cryomancer girl. One quick glance at her using his shamanic senses told him that she had indeed some evil spirits to contend with.

As Frost leapt at him again going for a haymaker straight punch to his face, the shaman took advantage of his longer reaching arms by extending it forward letting the overexcited girl run straight into his open hand. Frost chocked as the shaman caught her neck with a gruff palm and hoisted her up giving her a good squeeze to strangle the fight out of her. Frost started wiggling her legs aiming to try and kick Nightwolf to let her go, although before she could find an opening, the Apache was swinging her to the side and send her back first to the ground.

"That's enough." Said the Shaman "I believe my spirits have been satisfied—AGHACK!"

His statement came a fraction of a second too late, Frost was already on top of him again wrapping her legs around his waist to put herself behind him and put her arms around his neck.

The shaman fell back on top of Frost feeling tremendous pressure on his neck, it was obvious Frost wanted payback for having choked her with one hand and although Nightwolf could elbow her to get her off of him he decided instead to tap out.

It was a test, he wanted to see if Frost could control herself while enraged, it would do him no good to have a companion that would let her pride keep her from thinking coherent thoughts. Should Frost ignore him and strangle the life out of him, well, he wanted to be killed in combat anyway; the shaman had nothing to lose.

Frost kept her hold, and as soon as Nightwolf's hand tapped on her arms, she released her grip. It looked like the kunoichi had far more discipline than the shaman had given her credit to.

Wiggling out from under him, she stood up and began straightening out her spiked up blue hair.

"Not bad.." Nightwolf coughed out touching his injured throat. "Your sifu Sub-Zero trained you well young one."

That earned him a sneer from Frost who still refused to look at him. "Sifu didn't teach me that one. All he did was teach me the basic stuff, like tapping means people are giving up. Useless things like that."

"Would you have preferred to kill me?" Smiled Nightwolf up at Frost who looked over her shoulder with wide eyes.

"Very funny." She gave him a playful kick to the ribs sending him back to the ground when he was trying to get back up. This was so she could suddenly sit on his stomach, effectively pinning him, and start pulling on his cheeks. "I could never kill you Nighty! You're going to be my right hand man, my number two, my first mate!"

To her credit; Frost had successfully made Nightwolf forget, if just momentarily, that she was in fact a girl. He hadn't expected such bubbly personality from a Lin Kuei assassin.

"So O' Chieftain." Said Nightwolf with great sarcasm to his voice as he pulled Frost's hands away from his cheeks so he could talk. "What will be your first order?"

"Two things, actually" Frost got off her improvised Apache sofa and stretched her back "First things first, we need to find a crib."

"A what?"

"A place where we can stay." Frost rolled her eyes at Nightwolf's ignorance of modern slang. "I know you're all happy living here with your little animal and plant friends, but I want a roof over my head. Plus we need a HQ."

Nightwolf shrugged, it made no difference to him, although in retrospect he didn't think sharing a cramped up teepee with Frost couldn't be healthy.

"Next is to find a couple more guys from the tournament so we can start giving back some to those freaking Teen Titans. Are you positively one hundred percent sure that you saw more from us back there?"

"No…" Nightwolf blinked "I told you I /was not/ sure" He stressed out that part "All I remember is trading blows with Ermac before appearing here. Maybe we could recruit him if he is around."

"Them." Frost corrected.

"Right, we could recruit them." The shaman gave an exasperated sigh, knowing Frost only did that to annoy him.

The kunoichi however looked in thought, her mind devising the plan that they will need in order to transverse Jump City in search for their missing comrades. If one could even call them that, Frost was certain that the easier part of her quest will be finding the other combatants, making them join her team would be much harder.

"We're going to have to go incognito." She said after a good minute of thought. "Things are likely going to be pretty heated right now, but we can't afford to lay low. We need to act now or we're just going to get caught with our pants down."

"What do you suggest we do?" The shaman asked out of curiosity despite knowing full well he was not going to like the answer. As expected, Frost looked at him with a very mischievous smile.

"I got just the thing, Nighty."

#############################

Back at the Titan Tower

Robin wasn't liking this.

Robin wasn't liking this one tiny bit.

The boy wonder and de facto leader of Teen Titans didn't often berate his team. He was, by all accounts, a good leader, attentive to the needs of his teammates. He needed to know how each and one of them worked, what were their strengths, their weaknesses, what motivated them, all so they could all work in tangent with one another. Synergy was essential in their kind of business, synergy that was best kept in a relaxed environment. Heroes as they may all be, Robin knew that they were all pretty young and thus strict discipline usually was very counterproductive.

However, sometimes the situation called for more…drastic measures.

Everybody could feel the tension early in the morning. Robin had killed the lights at twenty hundred hours (9:00 pm) sharp the day before letting everyone know they will need to wake up bright and early the next day. Sure enough at dawn, when the first rays of sunlight had passed through the windows of the tower, the silent alarm that announced everyone should be awake sounded at least two hours early calling all Teen Titans to the mess hall. Groggily, Cyborg, Beast Boy, Starfire and Raven lumbered into the living room quietly eating some hastily prepared breakfast. There would be no tomfoolery today, though Robin had said nothing so far, everyone knew that he wouldn't tolerate any distractions from absolutely anyone.

Everyone save of course Beast Boy, who still being sore after the interruption from yesterday which kept him from beating Cyborg, went to plop himself on the sofa to start up a videogame.

"Hey! What gives!" This was promptly shut down by a sullen looking Robin as he turned off the TV with the remote and pointed to the table where everyone was sitting. Without saying a word, the boy wonder took a seat by the table and was quickly followed by a depressed and sleepy Beast Boy.

Robin threw a folder with files at pictures at the center and said "Tyler Meis."

The rest of the Titans frowned at looked at each other in confusion, that name meant nothing to them.

"That is the name of the police officer that was killed yesterday in the robbery." Explained Robin, his expression somber as he placed his gloved covered hands on the table and regarded each Titan severely for a long moment, his gaze lingering on Beast Boy for obvious reasons. They knew very well what that this meant, they all recognized that look Robin got when he was obsessed with something.

"Guys, I can't stress enough how serious this situation is. If what Raven is telling me is true, it's quite possible that we have several demi deity like entities running around in our city just waiting for an excuse to start wreaking havoc."

Robin dimmed the lights and turned the big screen showing profiles for both Frost and Nightwolf. A lot of detailed information about the two was shown despite knowing little to nothing about them, Robin had worked on this all night for sure.

"So far we have encountered two of them. First it was our 'friend' Frost." Robin clicked on the remote which pulled up the ice kunoichi's profile. A still image of the spiky haired girl glaring at the screen showed along with some footage of their fight caught by Jump City's bank camera

"Ice powers, highly impervious to damage, above human strength, skilled in Tong Bei Quan martial arts, teleportation, has a cocky attitude and likes to get into fights with gang members. At first I thought she wasn't leader material judging by how she attacked us at the bank, but her actions yesterday saving Nightwolf from us leads me to believe that she's more involved with these people that we think. This brings me to our next subject."

Next Robin pulled the Shaman's profile on the screen. "According to Raven he uses shamanism; can reflect projectiles, summon axes made out of energy, has super humsn strength, can shape shift into a wolf, he's also apparently possessed. And as far as we know responsible for one murder." Robin paused to take a breath looking very regretful about how that had turned out. "I get the feeling that Nightwolf is not the sort that would do that, but he doesn't seem to be in control of his actions and Frost is trying to capitalize on this no doubt. That doesn't get him a free pass though; they are both to be considered highly hostile."

Robin turned the screen off and addressed his team directly after that briefing. "It looks like we have a lot of info on these guys, but in reality we know next to nothing. They may know each other but Frost and Nightwolf don't seem have anything in common, other than they're extremely powerful…and not very bright. Not a good combination people."

"So what's the plan?" Cyborg, eager to be on the way was the first to speak. Unlike the rest of the Titans he didn't really need all this briefing, but he knew it was something Robin did to cover all the bases.

"I know this is going to sound hard on you all, but we can't contact Titans East, not just yet at least."

"Are you sure that's wise?" Raven piped up lowering her hood to show how her eyes had widened. "I wasn't kidding when I said these guys could be demi-gods. It would take several of us to bring down just one."

"Yeah, didn't you say earlier that we should dog pile 'em while they're scattered?" Cyborg agreed.

To this however, Robin shook his head. "Not until we know with how many of them we're dealing with. I don't want a full scale war out in the streets. This needs to be contained as much as possible and the less civilians involved, the better. Only when we are completely sure of how many of them we're dealing with will we start calling for help, preferably before they can get organized so we can pick them out individually."

Of all the Titans; it was Beast Boy who realized first what this strategy would entail "But that'd mean we'd have to be patrolling twenty four seven!"

"Exactly"

A collective groan was let out from the Teen Titans in frustration and was met by Robin slamming his fists on the large table causing everyone to gasp in surprise.

"A man is dead, guys! Do you realize the severity of the situation!" There was no fury in Robin's voice, only a coldness that no boy his age should ever be capable to muster. It was something that not even the most hardened interrogators could hope to achieve, his level of maturity far surpassed most adults, it left the Titans shivering; even Raven was stunned.

"I want you all to focus, lives are depending on it. We are heroes and it's high time we start acting like it. That means, no partying, no video games, no late nights and no junk food, not at least until this whole thing clears up." To their credit Starfire, Cyborg and Raven took it in stride, their faces hardening with the responsibility that they were given, of the four, only Beast Boy looked a little sullen, but he understood why they needed to do that, they all did.

Although that didn't mean they had to like it.

As the Titans sat quietly left to their own thoughts, Robin went on about the intricate plan he had to scour the city for the shaman and the ninja girl along with any otherworld invader that had accompanied them to their dimension. He divided the city on five parts, each assigned to a single titan who had clear instructions of not engaging their targets by their lonesome. Anyone that looked suspicious would have to be scanned by either Cyborg or Raven to see if they possessed traces of the overpowering evil energy that both Frost and Nightwolf seemed to have.

"Alright, you all have your instructions. Finish your breakfast and let's go, we'll be rendezvousing periodically in the main park, try to avoid going back to the tower if you can, I don't want to risk either Frost or Nightwolf tracking us back. The chances of that seem low but I'm just not sure what they're truly capable of, after what I've seen so far I'm not giving them any chances to take us by surprise."

Rubbing his chin in thought, the boy wonder and leader of the Titan Titans shook his head to clear his mind and dismissed his team to get an early start himself; he would be eating breakfast on the road.

"This sucks." Said Beast Boy once Robin was out of ear shot "Like, no junk food seriously? What does that have to do with anything? It's not like it affects our performance any." As far as he was concerned, he was having an extra long breakfast, with extra chocolate syrup on his sugar coated cereal.

"It gives you the gas, does it not?" Starfire's comment caused Beast Boy to spit out some of his milk.

"Yeah BB, we don't want you taking any bathroom breaks in the middle of a scrap." Cyborg laughed. "Like last time."

Beast Boy mumbled some incomprehensible words and it seemed that everyone was ready to accept their grim fate of scouring the city all day for an indefinite amount of time. Such was the life of super heroes. At least until Raven spoke up, she hadn't even drank any of her tea, after Robin left she had just been staring at it looking very worried.

"I can't believe I'm saying this but, Beast Boy is right, this sucks."

"See! See! Even Raven thinks this is so totally unfair!"

"I know Robin means well, but we can't be on high alert all the time. If I'm not allowed to meditate at least an hour a day my powers will get out of control."

"I am in agreement with friend Raven." Starfire gave small squeak and looked over her shoulder, half expecting Robin to pop out of nowhere. "As much as I understand why friend Robin does what he does, we cannot stay all day vigilant without proper rest. When I was a slave even the masters would give us some time to recuperate ourselves."

Not a whole lot was known about Starfire's time as a slave in a foreign planet, and the naïve Tamarean often times made the social faux paux of bringing it up at inopportune times. Before Beast Boy could pry on it, the more mature Cyborg decided to carry the conversation along.

"Look, I'm with you guys on this but I think it's safe to assume that Robin ain't gonna let up until we've bagged these guys, you know how he gets when stuff like this happens. He'll run us raw before he lets anything happen to this city."

Cyborg noticed the grim features on his teammates; he knew that they were all prepared to give it their all in the defense of Jump City, but being more down to earth than Robin made him realize what the boy wonder did not. Not even Starfire possessed the incredible endurance that Robin showed when emergency situations like this happened; when and if the Titans finally manage to corner their quarry, all of them save for Robin would be too tired to be effective. As the second in command, it was up to him to do something.

"Okay how about this? We can sneak out tonight to kinda refresh ourselves. It'll probably be a long time before we can do something fun until this whole mess with the other dimension invaders is over, so why not call it our last hurrah?"

"Sneak out where exactly?" Raven narrowed her eyebrows, she didn't want to go outside with the others, her idea of fun was staying in her room reading a book.

"Let's go to that club that we went the other day. It's been a while since we've mingled."

"Alright! Party time!" Cheered Beast Boy

"Ugh! That's not what I had in mind at all." Cyborg had expected Raven to complain about this, although fortunately he had an ace up his sleeve in the form of Starfire.

"Well, if Rae ain't into it then I think we're screwed. Robin would know something's up if sensors in the tower are detecting only her being inside."

Almost immediately Starfire was throwing herself at Raven tugging her into a tight and almost bone crushing hug. "Oh please dearest friend Raven! Come and join us in our nightly festivities! It will do you good!"

Raven gasped for air and began turning several shades of purple, there was no way she could counter that argument. "Okay! Just…. please…..my….ribs…" Despite her pleads Starfire just kept hugging her, tighter this time as she was thrilled now that Raven went along with the idea. As the Tamarean Amazon twirled around the sorceress in her arms, Cyborg and Beast Boy gave each other a thumbs up, they'll make sure this night would be memorable.

##################################

Later that night

"Are you certain this is a good idea? "Outside the muffled noise of heavy techno music, a muscled dark skinned man with a red bandanna covering his hair spoke to a young black haired hair dressed in leather, like a biker.

"Why do you keep asking me the same question Nighty? I've told you, if any of the guys from the tournament are wandering around through here, they're gonna show up at a place like this."

According to the ice kunoichi, Frost and Nightwolf were now incognito. Because she had guessed correctly that the authorities along with the Titans would be on the lookout for them she had procured that the two of them got new looks to pass unnoticed. It irritated Nightwolf, but he had to admit he hardly could recognize himself with jeans, a tight sleeveless T shirt, shades and a do rag covering his hair. It was something he would never wear.

Frost had done a remarkably good job with herself too. She had taken the cold that her hair permanently spiked up out, revealing her natural short black hair. Dressed also with a trendy leather jacket and pants, she appeared more like a local member of a biker gang than a Lin Kuei ninja. Nightwolf had absolutely no idea where Frost came up with the new set of clothes, but he didn't ask, he was more concerned about their destination. Why on earth did Frost think going to a dance club was a good idea was completely beyond his comprehension.

"Look." Frost continued trying to explain and get Nightwolf to stop complaining, this would be so much easier if he stopped trying to fight her every inch of the way. Getting him to wear those clothes was by itself already a herculean task. "Clubs like these tend to attract all manner of people; it's the perfect place to find out about the underground and what's going on in this city. Check out if anyone's been seeing strange people around, new crazy folk in town, stuff that doesn't get published in the news. Plus not everyone in the tournament was a crazed blood thirsty psychopath like you and I." Nightwolf sighed at this, hating that Frost was putting him on the same category as her. "Maybe one of them will take the chance that they aren't bound by the rules of the tournament and come here to unwind. Heck, I wouldn't be surprised if I see Johnny Cage there."

"I thought you didn't like Cage."

"I don't! I hate that douche!" Frost laughed "But I'm kinda desperate to track more of our guys. I'd even consider talking to Sonya Blade if I ran into her here, at least after socking her a few to the face that is."

Nightwolf was just very dimly aware of Frost's rivalry with Lieutenant Sonya Blade and merely shook his head as he was grabbed by the hand by his young companion and forcefully dragged inside the club.

Shoving their way through the crowd, the bouncer took one good look at Nightwolf and decided that letting the two pass was probably a better idea than getting his jaw dislocated by a stray punch from the Apache. Once inside the ninja girl and the Indian's senses were assaulted by dozens of flashing lights and loud booming music with Japanese lyrics. Much as the two had expected the club was packed, forcing them to wade through the ocean of dancers so they could reach the bar where the music was not as loud and could attempt some manner of communication.

"I hate places like these…it's so loud."

"WHAT?"

"I SAID-" Nightwolf smacked himself in the face realizing the futility of such conversation. "I said, what are we to do now O' fearless Chieftain!"

Frost grinned cheekily at Nightwolf causing the shaman to scowl. He could not believe such a young girl could be a cold blooded murderer. Frost was either a really good ninja being able to hide it like that, or she was insane and truly didn't understand that what she did wasn't what normal teenage girls do.

"We mingle!" Said as she stood up and twirled around like a ballerina. Yep, definitely the latter Nightwolf thought. "Go dance around and show your stuff. Draw a lot of attention to yourself, make a few friends. Someone is gonna want to know who's that hunk shaking it over there."

"But I can't dance." Nightwolf grimaced already knowing he was going to hate every second of this public humiliation.

"Just improvise! Elergods! You don't need to know how to dance with a body like yours Nighty! Didn't you ever have a girlfriend?"

"As a Sin Eater I was destined to fight and die, there wasn't any time for-"

"Yeah yeah, whatever, you're shy I understand, just walk around a little, trust me, you'll have girls clinging to your arms before you know it."

The shaman sighed; there wasn't any way to avoid this. He wasn't 'hip' like Frost; he was completely out of his element. For a fleeting second, the Apache brave wished Johnny Cage truly was around; at least he would know what to do.

While he was trying to figure out a plan to tackle this difficult task, Nighwolf realized that Frost was looking intently somewhere else before she turned to him again. "Okay, you go that way and I'll go talk to that cute goth over there."

Nightwolf leaned to one side to see behind Frost and noticed a young pale girl dressed in black clothes sitting by her lonesome further up the bar. The shaman raised his eyebrows before giving Frost a curious glance. As if saying 'I didn't know you swung that way'.

The ninja shrugged "What? I go for whatever's pretty. You got a problem with that?"

Nightwolf scoffed and turned to leave "There is nothing shameful in being a two spirit. Just take heed before taking any lovers tonight. Female or otherwise, you don't have a place to bring them back to bed them."

"Whatever dad, that's what hotels are for!" Frost cracked her knuckles once Nightwolf's bulky frame was lost in the crowd of people. She was glad that he had proved to be surprisingly open minded, though she still would have done whatever she pleased even if he had protested, his approval just made it easier for her.

Frost zeroed in on her target like a hawk spotting prey as she worked herself into her smooth mode. The prey in question, a young girl who was huddled into a corner quietly drinking by herself hadn't noticed her yet and continued daintily sipping her drink. Her attire was rather plain, only a small black tank top and some loose fitting black jeans; she didn't have much jewelry to speak of and she didn't appear to be wearing makeup, which meant that she really was that pale and those bags under her eyes were real. Frost couldn't tell either if her deep purple hair was natural or dyed, although what most intrigued her about the girl was the red marking on the middle of her forehead. Initially Frost thought it was a tattoo, but upon further inspection and judging by the way light reflected on it, the kunoichi realized it was a jewel incrusted on her skin. Frost always did like shiny things, bonus points if they were attached to attractive people like the girl in question. She was indeed very pretty, had a mysterious aura about her and looked very lonely.

Just her type

"Hey." Frost didn't beat around the bush; she pulled up a stool and went to sit next to the girl.

"Hey?" The girl blinked looking perplexed; probably thinking that Frost had the wrong person. "Can I help you?"

Frost grinned broadly; she was going to enjoy this. "Maybe I can help you." Said she making no attempt to hide the flirt to her voice "Couldn't help but notice that you were in dire need for company." Much to her delight, the girl in question noticed this and stared at her awkwardly before realization struck causing her to look away, a stain of crimson staining her pale cheeks.

"I'm already with a group." She said with a whisper giving Frost an excuse to lean in closer so she could hear her. The girl's reaction was priceless, she scooted away from Frost and shyly shrugged her shoulders to hide her face defensively, for a predator like Frost that coy nature just made her try harder.

"And where pray tell are they?"

"I don't know, dancing somewhere."

"Left you all by yourself? Doesn't sound like a very good group to me."

"I told them to go by themselves, it's not like I wanted to dance with any of them."

"Maybe you'd like to dance with me then?"

Frost knew she was coming on to her too strong, but she couldn't help herself, not to a girl like that. At the very least it made her get out of her embarrassed stupor and instead she deftly turned to Frost with what looked like pure and utter shock. The ninja could tell the girl wasn't accustomed to attention like that, although she couldn't figure out why, she was certainly very pretty to warrant all kind of attention from people, in fact she looked somewhat familiar but Frost couldn't recall where she may have seen her.

"Wh-who are you?" The girl stammered, an action Frost found to be irresistibly cute. But not enough to lower her guard, she was playing this one safe, more so now than she thought that she had seen this girl before.

"Oh I'm just a new girl in town, looking to have some fun with the locals." Surprisingly, that wasn't a lie. Although that was an answer the girl that was target of Frost's advances did not seem to like, she took a serious, almost dissapointed expression and looked away from Frost.

"That would explain it." She said.

"Explain what?"

"Why you're even talking to me, trust me you don't want to have anything to do with me." With that, the pale girl chugged the rest of her drink and proceeded to move away from her stool, only to be intercepted when Frost placed herself in front of her, blocking her way. When the girl moved to the right, Frost mimicked her movement and stood in front of her still, repeating the process a couple more times when she slid from side to side trying to avoid her.

"Come on, don't be like that." Frost smiled still at the girl trying to play hard to get. "So you have a few skeletons in your closet. Big deal, we all have them."

"Nothing quite like mine."

"Oh?" Frost giggled and gingerly reached for the pale girl's hand grasping it so that she opened her palm to lay her own on top of hers. "Believe me when I tell you that when it comes to secrets." The girl gasped as she felt something cold realizing that Frost had left a heart shaped piece of ice on her hand. "I have you beat."

And that is when Raven realized who she had been talking to this whole time. Her whole situation looked quite dire when she found out, as she had feared, that the Asian biker girl who had been hitting on her was none other than Frost, one of the invaders from another dimension.

Before Raven could formulate some kind of idea to bolt out of there, Frost was grasping her hand again pulling it up softly to place a soft kiss on her knuckles.

Looking back, Raven wasn't sure why she did what she did then. Maybe it was the fact that she wanted to play it safe so Frost didn't wise up and realized she was a Titan, maybe it was because she found it amusing that another girl would find interest on her, or maybe despite being an obvious villain, something about Frost truly did attract her. Maybe she was just tipsy too, who knows? But whatever the reason Raven accepted Frost's proposal and she whisked her away to the dance floor merging with the crowd.

Nightwolf on the other hand was not disappointed when Frost's prediction proved wrong and he did have girls clinging to his arms. As he paced across the dance floor looking stiff all he managed to do was bump into people and make himself a big obstacle for dancers. A few men whirled around when they accidentally crashed into him looking to start a fight, but much like the bouncer in front they quickly deflated like balloons when they saw him and went back to their dance partners, deciding to impress their dates through less dangerous means.

Much to his surprise, the shaman actually felt irritated that he couldn't comply with Frost's orders and draw as much attention to himself as he could. Seal the Dragon King in the Netherrealm and things of that nature he could do. Dancing? Not so much.

It was with great relief then that he got his work cut out for him. There was a rather large crowd gathering at the center of the dance room and with nowhere else to go, Nightwolf decided to investigate.

Following Frost's example, he shoved his way past the crowd easily so he could see what the commotion was about, finding that it was a pair of dancers performing incredible displays of dexterity much to the enjoyment of all the ravers.

The two men wore thick black hoodies and ski masks to conceal their faces, black gloves and combat boots to ensure they weren't showing a single bit of skin. Nightwolf found this to be awfully curious and decided to continue watching.

"Man, these guys are tight!"

"How did they do that!"

"Ain't no way the local bboy crew can take on these dudes!"

Amidst the clamor of the crowd, Nightwolf found himself agreeing with the jaw slacked dancers, even if he didn't know half the things they were saying. The two dancers moved in perfect synch, it was beyond unreal. They moved nimbly through the air, doing impossible acrobatic maneuvers like spinning in the air several times before landing on hand stands both at the same time, all while keeping to the rhythm of the fast paced music.

What intrigued Nighwolf the most was the clear knowledge of martial arts that the two had. These weren't just dancers, as a proficient fighter himself; Nightwolf recognized most all the movements that the two were disguising as dance steps. It was Hou Quan, better known as Monkey Kung Fu.

They must have realized he was staring too intently. The two dancers, they must have been twins, both looked in Nightwolf's direction and twirled their way towards the shaman standing right in front of him.

Nightwolf squared his shoulders and looked at them in turn, he knew what this meant, he was being challenged.

Merely out of force of habit, the Apache warrior curled his fists expecting the dancers to yell out the unmistakable cry for Mortal Kombat. Instead the two dancers made rapid feet motion in a threatening manner and back flipped away from Nightwolf. As they landed on their feet the two pointed to the shaman at the same time accusingly.

The Apache's eyes under his shades widened. This was a lot worse than he thought.

They didn't want to fight, they were asking for a dance off.

If it weren't for the people surrounding him Nightwolf would have obviously simply ignored the challenge and gone about his way. In fact if he had any say in the situation he wouldn't even be there making a fool out of himself with such obnoxious attire and in the presence of equally obnoxious people.

Yet, the spirits worked in mysterious ways as he knew, and so now there he was. Challenged.

Frost better appreciate this.

Stirred by the cheers of the crowd, the shaman boldly stepped forward rubbing his palms keeping his ears open to follow the rhythm of the music. He was not kidding when he told the kunoichi that he didn't know how to dance, but that would not stop him from improvising.

Much to his own surprise, he found that he could copy the same fast speed footwork the other two dancers did, moving to the same beat of the music. It was almost like a war dance to him, moving up towards where the two hooded men were watching as he spun on his heel to stand right before them and return their gesture.

With the challenge accepted, Nightwolf just let the moment get to him and went to do whatever power moves came to his mind, he didn't know any actual break dancing maneuvers, but he was certain if the two dancers that called him could masquerade martial movements as dancing so could he.

Nightwolf flipped backwards landing on one hand and pushed himself into the air doing several Taekwando spinning kicks angled upwards. Much to his own amusement the flying tornado kicks drew yells of excitement from the crowd causing him to take it a step further and land on a leg split. Grinning like a fool, he then went to kick his legs to the side putting himself on his back where he spun around with legs extended like helicopter blades finishing on a head stand balancing himself there and pointed back to the other dancers with two hands.

Almost immediately the two dancers flipped forward and did cartwheels crossing each other and place themselves back to back. As they did that one of them flipped the other forward who then landed on his feet and repeated the maneuver until both of them gave a full flip in the air landing with a roll where they did Nightwolf's same routine save much faster and far less sloppy.

There was no way the Apache could compete with that, plus there were two of them, this was sort of unfair. Maybe he could try to bring Frost to try and out dance them? He was certain the teenager ninja girl knew some moves.

When he was considering what to do, Nightwolf felt a pain on his chest that caused him to wince. His eyebrows furrowed with great concern realizing he had neglected to take something into consideration. All the loud music and dancing had stirred the evil spirits dormant within his body.

They wanted to do a different kind of dance.

"Urggh! No..not here! Not now!"

His hope that Frost would somehow sense that he was in trouble and come to assist him was a long shot. She was too busy grinding hips with Raven. The ice kunoichi had no problem turning the fast paced music into a very intimate intricate dance dashing the young sorceress' hopes that she would keep her distance away.

Frost had never let go of Raven's hand once she took it and no sooner had she dragged her to dance floor she spun the girl around on her own axis like a top causing the Titan to rest her back on the ninja's chest. Frost smiled with her blue painted lips as she forced Raven's arms to cross around her own lap effectively hugging her from behind and swayed her hips in unison with hers.

Raven wanted to desperately to pull away, half expecting her powers to spiral out of control due to the rush of emotion and explode around her. But the shock of dark energy never came and the sensation of Frost so close to her felt far too pleasing, in fact she wanted to stir closer, lose herself in dance with the other girl, to close her eyes and let her take control. If her powers were not acting up, then why should she move away? Other than the fact she was dancing with an insanely violent demi-Goddess that is.

The sorceress would have never guessed that Frost was the type that could be responsible for the death of an entire universe. Not with the way she was treating her now, she spun her around again expertly and placed her arms across her waist to lean her backwards and dip her seductively, almost as if they were dancing tango.

No one had ever done that to Raven, it was such a foreign sensation, but she found it to her liking. It felt good, it made her want more, it even made the Titan forget herself momentarily and wrap her arms around her partner's neck, puling the other girl down with her and close the distance between their faces. Frost didn't resist and obliged Raven, her blue piercing eyes fluttering close preparing herself to press her lips against the other girl.

Until they were interrupted.

"Friend Raven?" Starfire's voice somehow pierced through the blasting noise of the music drawing the attention of both sorceress and cryomancer, both caught in mid kissing. Starfire was naïve in the ways of human social norms, but not when it came to intimacy such as that. She gasped and covered her mouth apologizing profusely. "Oh! I am sorry..I did not know that…"

Frost suddenly reeled back away from Starfire and tensed up. She may have not recognized Raven because she had never seen her without her hood, but a bronze skinned Goddess such as Starfire was very difficult to forget.

"You're a Titan!" Said the Lin Kuei warrior girl once she got a good look at Starfire. The Tamarenian narrowed her eyes peering at the Asian girl Raven had been dancing with and titled her head curiously.

"Frost?"

The cryomancer clenched her teeth in annoyance with herself, what an amateur thing to do, she had blown her cover. Sub-Zero would be very disappointed.

Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on how one were to look at it, she wasn't the only one that had been discovered. No sooner had Starfire figured out who she was, Frost felt something big slamming against her back causing her to jump and look over her shoulder. It was Nightwolf, with Cyborg and Beast Boy flanking him on the front.

"Care to explain how that happened Nighty?"

"I blew an aggression inhibitor."

"Come again?" Frost blinked in confusion, forcing the Apache to use layman terms.

"I flipped out and decked someone."

"Ah.."

Cyborg turned his arm into his sonic blaster and trained it on the two kombatants. "Check it out guys, BB and I found Hiawatha stirring up trouble in the crowd."

"And we found Frost." Said Raven causing her cloak to appear from thin air and wrap around her body. The Lin Kuei girl frowned when this happened.

"Now I remember where I'd seen you before." Said she as she passed her hands across her black hair turning it into its normal blue spiked up style once she tapped into her ice powers. No sense trying to keep a low profile now.

Frost had hoped Raven would grant her a chance of escape due to their previously intimate moment, however the sorceress proved to be far too loyal to her allies and immediately went to continue Cyborg's threatening gesture by pointing at the two warriors with an open, dark energy coated palm.

"Stand down, we don't want to hurt you." The Sorceress said, knowing that such words would likely just irritate someone like Frost.

Indeed, the kunoichi's reaction to the warning was to summon her serrated ice daggers and give Raven a predatory look. "Don't worry babe, you wouldn't be able to hurt me. Even if you tried!"

In a similar manner, Nightwolf summoned a pair of energy made tomahawks and clashed them together while looking at Cyborg and Beast Boy, ready to defend Frost's rear.

"Okay, if that's the way it's gonna be." Said Cyborg checking first on his scanners to make sure that Nightwolf didn't have his reflector shield up to get ready to blast him. His targeting system went astray as he felt a pair of strong arms lifting him up by the waist and dropped him on his neck as someone German supplexed him from behind.

Beast Boy looked beside him when Cyborg cried out in pain as he was slammed and noticed that a man in a black hoodie was attacking his friend. It was one of the dancers from earlier.

Instinct took over and Beast Boy morphed into a panther to attack the hooded man, only to be intercepted by his companion dressed in the same manner with a flying kick to the snout. Beast Boy spun back and felt himself being pulled down in midair to get power bombed head first into the unforgiving dance floor.

"Through here! Come quickly!" Said one of the hooded men motioning for Frost and Nightwolf to follow while Cyborg and Beast Boy where recuperating. The Apache looked at his ninja companion wondering what she thought of such unusual assistance, and the girl nodded silently telling the warrior to go ahead.

While Nightwolf ran following the hooded men outside the dance club, Frost took advantage that everyone was stunned by the interference of the hooded dancers to wink at Raven and blow her a kiss before running. "See you around sweet cheeks."

Raven made no attempt to pursue; she was far too confused by what just happened to do anything. Not so much due to the hooded men that had suddenly attack Cyborg and Beast Boy, but due to the overwhelming feelings that she had felt for Frost, it was something so surreal.

The magician girl Titan would have surely laughed if anyone had told her she would feel such things merely by dancing with someone. It was such a ridiculous thing for her; she thought she was so above things like that.

As it turned out, she wasn't. Raven had always pushed such feelings away fearing that it would stir her emotions and break the delicate balance that kept her powers at bay. Could it possibly be that Frost, being almost a deity like entity due to her incredible power, could approach her like that without causing her any harm? It made no sense, if anything Raven reason that nothing good could come when being in the proximity of such a volatile person. She didn't know the reason why she felt the way she did, all she knew was that it had felt good, incredibly good in fact. All she wanted now was to be cradled in those arms again. It made her feel safe.

"Raven?" Starfire had also not moved an inch when the hooded men attacked giving Frost and Nightwolf the opportunity to escape. All she had done was stare at Raven with great concern in her eyes. The sorceress somberly looked back at Starfire, a heavy bead of sweat ran down her face. She was blushing hard.

"Okay." Cyborg approached them holding his injured head, followed by Beast Boy who has rubbing his jaw in the place where he had been kicked. Their appearance made Raven turn away giving them her back to hide herself, but it was unlikely any of the boys had caught wind of the events that had transpired with the sorceress and the ninja. In reality, Cyborg was far more concerned about matters he thought were more important.

"Not a word of this to Robin. We clear on that?"

Frost and Nightwolf were surprised that the Titans hadn't pursed them. In fact, Frost was downright offended; she had already set pace for an epic chase.

The men they were following had taken such things into consideration from the looks of it, since they did not stop running until the four of them reached the city's limits. Nightwolf and Frost had great difficulty keeping up with them, their speed was amazing, the shaman even had to shape shift into a wolf in order to follow the group.

Finally, the hooded men decided they had distanced themselves enough from any would be pursuers and came to a stop in a dark secluded alley of the city. Frost was breathing hard, plumes of cold air exhaled from her nostrils and mouth.

"Phew!" She wiped her forehead acting very casual while Nightwolf keep staring at the men that had rescued them. "Well that was fun!" Smiled Frost "You two are kombatants aren't you?"

The two nodded and spoke at the same time. "Yes." They said before fusing themselves together as if they were made out of ink. "Yes I am."

"Noob Saibot?" Frost gasped when the shadow wraith lowered his hood to show his masked face.

"What in blazes are you doing break dancing at clubs?" Asked an equally surprised Nightwolf.

"Why not?" Said the undead ninja shrugging his broad shoulders. "I serve no Master but myself, I can do whatever I please."

"Yes but…break dancing? Really? " Nightwolf wouldn't have let the topic go if it wasn't for Frost who elbowed him on the ribs.

"At any rate, thanks for the assist back there Saibot. Those guys can be real nuisances, I dunno if you've heard about them, the so called protectors of this realm, the Teen Titans?"

Noob crossed his arms and gave a slight nod. "They are very popular in the media."

"Aha good, so you do know them." Frost gave Nightwolf the thumbs up, implying she had this one on the bag. "Nightwolf and I, we are trying to gather any fighters from the tournament we can find and form a team to beat them. Why don't you roll with us? We can totally rule this city together!"

It looked for a moment that Noob Saibot was considering Frost's proposal. Although he shook his head all too quickly for the kunoichi's liking letting her know he didn't even think about it.

"Nah."

"What? Why not! Think about it Saibot. Don't you want to control a whole city? We don't even need to stop there. We can start small, taking out the Titans first, then we can expand our influence and eventually rule over the whole galaxy! Without Raiden, Shao Kahn or the Elder Gods to stop us, there's nothing anyone can do!"

"And that is why I would rather not have anything to do with it." Noob shook his head. "It is an ambitious project. Yet now that I am no longer bound to Quan Chi, or the Mortal Kombat tournament, I find myself wishing for a new beginning. One that does not involve any of you fools." The wraith relaxed his arms and began to blend with the shadows signaling his exit. "So long young one. I rescued you on a whim so don't think I'll be friendly if we meet again. I'll probably kill you if we do in fact."

"Funny." It was not Frost who reacted to Noob's reveal of not wanting anything to do with his past life anymore, the girl was too disinherited to say anything really, but Nightwolf who spoke. "One would think that you would relish the opportunity to spend some time with your younger brother's pupil, Bi-Han."

That took both Frost and Noob Saibot by surprise; the wraith even came out of the shadows to stare daggers at Nightwolf, even grasping him by the shirt he wore.

"How do you know my name Shaman!" At Noob's demand, the warrior in question just gave a smug grin. "I have known Kuai Liang for a long time, demon, much longer than you think. He has revealed to me all his traumatic experiences that living in your shadow has caused."

"You know sifu's real name? Color me impressed, Nightwolf."

Yet another shock for Noob Saibot, his dead gaze now fixed on the young kunoichi. "He is your sifu?"

"Was." She corrected him nd gave a helpless shrug of her shoulders scratching the back of her neck looking uncomfortable talking about the topic. "It's a long story; suffice to say we're not in good terms anymore."

Noob regarded her for a long moment, she had known of a prodigal Lin Kuei warrior for some time, but had never met her. He had very little business with the Lin Kuei after his demise save for the odd raid.

"But…you're a girl. Women are not permitted in the Lin Kuei."

Frost just rubbed her nose cockily, a look of pride on her face as she puffed her chest, one hand on her hip. "I guess I'm just that badass. Sifu realized that, you should do so too Saibot."

The wraith narrowed his eyes, the only part of him that could be seen with the full mask and ninja suit her wore. "My brother may have been a fool, but he had always been deeply rooted in the so called honorable traditions of the Lin Kuei. For him to break such oaths and allow one such as you into the temple like that, you must be quite formidable indeed."

Frost's smiled just kept getting bigger and bigger as Noob Saibot spoke, her ego inflated to the point it nearly burst. "It is intriguing that he never mentioned you in the few occasions where we met.

"Sifu didn't mention you either." Countered Frost "I knew of your existence, but if it weren't for Nighty here I wouldn't have known you guys were brothers."

Noob gave Nightwolf a side glance. "Nighty?"

"It's my nickname." Said he rubbing his temples.

Noob Saibot gave a soft chuckle, the first one he had done in years for sure; the wraith couldn't remember the last time he laughed. "No doubt he hoped that I would not be a bad influence to you. But I see his efforts where in vain."

Frost smacked her lips. "I'm just not a goody goody two shoes like he is, don't get it twisted Nooby."

"Don't call me that." Frost could maybe get away with calling Nightwolf nicknames, but Noob Saibot would have none of it. "You call me like that again and I will kill you, make no mistake.

"Whoa, chill out." The kunoichi just laughed the threat off, far too confident in her abilities to defend herself to be intimidated by anyone. "Eldergods, just when I thought I couldn't find anyone grimmer that Nighty."

At the very least it looked like Saibot no longer intended in leaving. His gaze was fixed on Frost who he no doubt found greatly amusing.

"This team of yours…does it have a name?"

Frost positively beamed with joy. "Yep! It's called the Konquerors!"

"That's spelled with a K isn't it?"

Frost nodded with great excitement causing the wraith to give a hearty laugh, the irony not lost on him.

"I could tell by the way you pronounced it, very astute." Frost could almost swear the ninja was smiling beneath his mask. "Very well young Frost. I am now at your disposal, and together we shall konquer this frail universe and bring it to its knees!"

Frost had just one thing to say to that.

"Awesome!"


	5. Invaders must die

Author's notes: Hyeeaa... I'm switching this story to the Mature rating. Graphic content ahoy. Well not too graphic just...graphic enough I reckon.

##############################

Needless to say that the late night events of Cyborg, Starfire, Beast Boy and Raven had been kept a complete secret from their fearless leader. Robin was a natural at deducing things were wrong, but through a combination of being far too preoccupied with scanning the city for Frost and any other otherworldly invader that could at any moment start slaughtering people at random, and Cyborg's understanding of how Robin's mind worked, the boy wonder was none the wiser about his teammates latest escapade. There were no news or anything on the subject, and it appeared that everyone would be spared the wrath of Batman's protegee.

However, it wasn't that difficult to tell that something was very wrong with Raven. She was more aloof than usual, she hardly ever responded when anyone called her on her radio. arrived late to their rendezvous, staggered a lot when flying and generally was spacing out more than Beast Boy.

At the end of a grueling day of patrolling, Robin walked up to Raven as she was lumbering back to her room to intercept her. "Raven what's wrong? You've been acting very weird lately."

The sorceress gave a weary sigh and glanced at Robin with pitiful eyes. "I know..I apologize. It's just… I… I don't know… I don't know what's wrong with me."

Robin placed his hand on Raven's shoulder making the young sorceress to look up with wide violet eyes. "It's okay; I understand what you're going through."

"Y-You do?" Raven's heart started beating out of control. Did Robin really know that she'd been thinking nonstop about Frost all this time?

"All those people coming from another dimension have been putting a strain on you. I don't doubt that you've been suffering the most out of all of us by sensing all those overwhelming sources of energy all the time. It must be tough being in tune with the flows of magic as you are."

The sorceress gave a relieved sigh and closed her eyes; for once she was very glad Robin was wrong. "Yes…that must be it."

Robin now placed both hands on her shoulders causing the young girl to lock eyes with him. "It'll be hard, but I need you to see this through despite the burdens. Without you we wouldn't be able to get a read on any of these people. You'll need to be strong for us, for me."

And for myself, Raven added to herself mentally and gave a simple nod, her hood still down. "Yes Robin, I understand. I won't let you down."

"I know you won't Raven." Giving the sorceress' shoulders another friendly pat, Robin stepped back and rolled his shoulders. "Well, I gotta go check on Cyborg and Beast and make sure they go to bed early for tomorrow." He rolled his eyes. "Mostly Beast Boy though. Make sure to get some rest okay Raven?"

"I will, good night Robin."

"Good night."

Raven waited until Robin was out of sight before punching the code to her room, she wanted full privacy tonight and was more on her guard than usual. It was why she felt Starfire peeking from around the corner on the other side of the hallway.

"Do you need something Star?" The Tamaranean knew that Raven would sense her presence sooner or later and went to float her way towards the brooding sorceress looking at her with her concerned eyes.

"What friend Robin said about your distress caused by the magical flows. It is not correct yes?"

Robin would be proud of Starfire's deducing abilities; it was most unfortunate that it had to be a case which would put her on Raven's bad side. The magician didn't respond right away, if it were Beast Boy or Cyborg, any one of the boys really, she could just lock herself on her room and ignore them. Starfire was special though, she had to be wary how she handled her.

"What makes you say that Star?" The alien princess bit her lip, Earth customs were so strange to her and she didn't know if talking about things like that was a social fallacy. The fact that she was dealing with Raven who even by Earth standards was weird, made it that much worse.

"Umm…" Starfire tried to find the words and decided to just who ahead and say it, hopefully Raven would forgive her if she made her uncomfortable. "I saw you and Frost dancing… it looked like you were going to kiss."

Raven said nothing and did nothing; she just stood there staring at the closed door of her room. After what felt an eternity of waiting, Starfire tried to pry again.

"Raven? Where you and Frost going to kiss-"

"Yes, I was going to kiss her, Starfire" The tone in Raven's voice was dangerously low. It told Starfire that she was threading a fine line and should probably back away. Naïve as she was however, the Tamaranean girl didn't take the hint and gently continued prodding when her curiosity got the better of her. She wanted to know what was going on with her friend! Surely this couldn't be that big of a deal?

"Do you…like her?"

"I don't know okay! I don't know!" Raven covered herself in dark energy, punching the door to her room with her fist. That made Starfire realize that it had been a bad idea to talk about that after all.

"I am sorry, I did not-"

"It was a spur of the moment. I didn't know who she was..I mean I did know who she was after a while but, it wasn't enough to..I don't know why I did what I did okay? Maybe…maybe I do like her."

The two girls stood quiet after that, neither one of them moving or daring to say anything else. Eventually, Raven realized that Starfire wouldn't stop staring until she somehow knew she was okay and she needed to go to sleep.

"Sorry about blowing up on you Star. I just need time to figure this out, I'm fine really."

Starfire pouted as if that wasn't what she wanted to hear but understood. "Very well friend Raven. I shall give you your space, but do not hesitate to ask if you wish to talk alright?"

"I'll keep that in mind, thank you Star."

"Have a good night friend Raven."

"Oh, Star, one thing." The alien Princess turned once more to Raven when she called for her wondering what else could she want. "We're friends aren't we?"

"Why of course!" Starfire responded instantly, no hesitation whatsoever from her part.

"Then for the sake of our friendship, please don't tell anyone of what I did with Frost. I wouldn't want something like that to get between us."

Starfire felt a mixture of fear and relief when her sorceress friend said that. For one part her tone sounded threatening, but at least she was happy to hear they were still friends despite having angering her. She would make sure to let Raven known that she had her full support.

"Of course friend Raven, you can trust me! I will not tell a soul, upon penalty of death!"

Sometimes Raven wished Starfire could pick her words more carefully. Because if the current situation spun out of control it could certainly mean the death of someone close to Raven, or maybe even herself. The sorceress gave the Tamarean who was saluting her like a soldier a quick thank you and slid inside her room shutting the door behind her.

As soon as she went inside she clutched her chest and fell to her knees. Her jaw slightly slacked gasping for air. She felt hot, as if she were steaming inside her cloak and quickly went to remove her garnet tossing it to one side leaving herself dressed only on her leotard. The quick removal of her gear caused her to shiver slightly and hugged herself feeling goosebumps on her skin, as if she had caught a fever.

"This can't be happening..." Raven manged to at least crawl to the comfort of her bed and rolled on her back spreading her arms and legs to look at the dark ceiling, the sorceress was breathing hard, her chest rising and falling. "This can't be happening to me..."

Hard as she tried, she couldn't stop thinking about the dance and how it had made her feel so protected. For someone like her who had spent an eternity trapped in meditation, studies and the knowledge that she would one day be sacrificed for the enjoyment of her father; such a simple gesture meant the world to her. It had made her felt alive for the first time, like a gush of cold water quenching her thirst after almost dying in the desert. It suffocated her with inexplicable pleasure.

Raven's hand went to rest on her stomach where it acquired a mind of it's own and went to pull up on her leotard. The cloth tightened across her loins wedging between her legs causing a small amount of relief to the itch she felt there.

"Damn you..." Raven's mind didn't know what to do, but her body did. After pulling on her leotard as far up as the clothing would go, her own hand trailed down her love line placing itself a top her scantly clothed girl hood. "Frost..." She closed her eyes whispering helplessly, for the first time unable to fight her emotions. No amount of training had prepared her to resist such things.

No longer able to restrain herself, her hand won the battle for dominance and plunged itself past the leotard's cloth beginning what would be a night of furious self pleasuring.

"What have you done to me...?"

##############################################

From what Noob Saibot had explained to his new found companions, he had been in the area for considerably more time than either one of them, he counted at least a few weeks. This was excellent for Frost's plan as it meant that Noob had already procured some maps of the city, back in their dimension Jump City did not exist. More importantly, the shadow wraith had also acquired a building here he was staying and could accommodate a few more people.

Noob Saibot was gracious enough to let both Nightwolf and Frost stay with him, but it looked like the young kunoichi had never heard of not looking at a gift horse's teeth.

"This place is a dump!" The building in question was an abandoned factory by Jump City's harbor, it was filled with awful refuse from the previous inhabitats who didn't bother to clean after their vices. Broken syringes, beer bottles, used up cigarettes and condoms littered the place.

"You said you've been living here for a couple of weeks and you never bothered cleaning it up?" The girl covered her nose in disgust and looked at the shadow wraith.

"I'm an undead. I don't have to worry about petty things like diseases or eating. The only reason why I went out of my way to secure a place for myself was so I could hoard any items of interest I could acquire here."

Frost would prefer if she didn't accidentally step on a broken syringe and caught some horrible immunological disease, so she and Nightwolf got about to clean the place which took them most of the day. Noob Saibot did the logical thing and stood there watching them, not bothering to help.

"Eeew! GROSS!" Frost yelled and jumped away from a bucket she found covered in vomit. "Ugh! I think I'm gonna hurl! What kind of people were living here before?"

"Some local drug addicts." Saibot responded whilst he leaned casually on a wall. "Don't worry, they won't be coming back."

Nightwolf and Frost looked at each other, they had a feeling they knew what the wraith meant by that.

"Did you kill them?" Asked Frost looking apprehensive.

"Only one, why?"

"Yeah..." Frost rubbed the back of her neck trying to find the words on how to explain their new policy to a heartless hell spawn. "Nightwolf and I think we shouldn't be killing people willy nilly. It's what got the Titans on our asses. If we had played it smart we coulda gotten the drop on them and not the other way around. So I think it's best we shouldn't kill people that don't deserve it."

Frost was relieved when Saibot just shrugged his shoulders as if he didn't care "Fair enough. But I reserve the right to say who deserves a Fatality and who doesn't."

"That works." Said Frost "Where did you put the body by the way?"

Noob pointed to a closet which Nightwolf opened, causing the remains of a man to splatter all of the ground, his guts spilling everywhere looking like he had been hacked in half.

"Sheesh, what did you do to him?"

"I merely kicked him and he died. The residents of this realm are nauseatingly weak. It's like they're made out of paper."

"Ain't that the truth? Hah! They should be glad that we'll be ruling them soon! Only the strong deserve a position of leadership!" Frost cheered and struck a pose, her mind flooded with images of her sitting a top a throne looking at an ocean of people kneeling down before her.

"But first." Nightwolf interrupted and handed her a mop with a bucket of water whilst pointing to the junkie's corpse. "Mopping."

"Aw man." Frost sighed and got to work "If I wanted to do crap like this I woulda stayed cleaning the Lin Kuei's dojo."

##########################################

Robin wasn't a bad leader, the Titans were extremely lucky to have him in the leadership. Which is why they knew he wouldn't keep them all scouring the city every waking moment of the day. As a competent leader he had to take into account team fatigue as they had all mentioned days before. Therefore much to their relief Robin had brought them all out for an hour and a half break to eat some pizza, his treat.

Which made the rest of the Titans feel even worse about the nightly escapades.

"I still think we should tell him." Said Beast Boy sipping on his drink. Robin had gone to get the pizzas leaving them all with a quick window of opportunity where they could discuss what to do. "Those guys that attacked us at the club could be otherworlders."

"We are gonna tell 'im, alright?" Cyborg said rubbing his forehead closing his one human eye. "I'm just trying to figure out a way without blowing our cover. We can't be all like 'Uh Robin, we totally broke curfew and went to pick fights at a disco' ya know what I'm saying?"

"I am sure Friend Robin would understand." Added Starfire "The information we posses now is important. Above all Robin appreciates knowledge of our opponents, no matter how it was obtained."

Raven sighed slightly "It's not like he is without his flaws... much like us... we are all flawed."

That sounded quite depressing, even for someone like Raven. Cyborg and Beast Boy already felt something was up ever since their incident at the dance club happened. That particular morning in fact, the whole group was held up by Raven who insisted she needed to take a cold shower first before going out to patrol. It hadn't taken too long but Raven was the most punctual Titan aside from Robin himself. Still, neither Robin or Starfire thought it was a big deal, it made the other two boys think they knew something they didn't.

"Are you alright Rae?" Asked Beast Boy unable to hold his peace as usual.

"I'm fine!" The sorceress yelled unnecessarily loud for such a simple question. She realized this obviously and went to clear her throat. "I'm fine really, the lack of mediation has me all stressed out. Sorry for yelling."

"It's cool." Beast Boy seemed to buy it. "We know how it is."

Having dodged a bullet Raven returned to staring into space whilst Cyborg and Beast Boy continued mumbling about what they would tell Robin. Starfire couldn't take her eyes off Raven knowing very well what was bothering her magician friend. She was however, duty bound to keep quiet and said nothing.

Robin eventually returned with the pizza and placed it down so everyone could dig in. It was a beautiful day outside and even in the midst of an otherwordly invasion, the Titan's camaraderie kept their spirits high where others would falter.

It was something they would desperately need in order to surpass the challenges ahead.

"Oh man, de ja freaking vu." Said Cyborg half munching on a slice of pizza as he pointed. "Look who's coming to join the party."

The Titans turned from where they sat to see none other than Gizmo approach them. Casually walking towards them with his ever present maniacal grin, his thumbs tucked on his utility belt

"Well well, if it isn't the Dork Squad. Having a good lunch I hope?"

"What do you want Gizmo?" Robin said balling up his fists in restrained anger, the last thing he needed at the moment was an interruption from the local goons.

"A new computer would be nice." The kid giggled "But for today I think I'm just gonna hafta settle for kicking all your butts! Can't pass up an opportunity like this."

Robing and the Titans immediately got out of their chairs getting into defensive positions, except for Beast Boy who took half a minute longer to finish what he could of the pizza.

"You gonna try to take us all on by yourself little man?" Cyborg cracked his knuckles ready to pound the uppity little brat flat. "Where's the rest of your crew? Oh wait, that's right, we beat all those guys so badly they didn't want to keep rolling with the rest of your sorry selves."

Gizmo laughed at that and raised his head up, a smug grin plastered on his face. It was a gesture that made Robin narrow his eyes. As far as he knew, See-More, Billy Numerous, Kyd Wykkyd and Jinx had left the H.I.V.E Five team after their continued disastrous runs ins against the Titans. Surely Gizmo didn't intend to fight the entire team with just him and Mammoth. Knowing the mad inventor Robin was sure he had something up his sleeve.

"Hey! I'm all about fighting when the odds are in my favor! Besides I couldn't keep all the fun from the rest of my team, particularly not to our newest members."

Robin's eyes narrowed even more. So he did have a surprise for them after all.

"Gizmo here, I found those lame brains you guys, they were at their usual dork spot like I thought." The little inventor villain spoke on his communicator and was joined in no time at all by Mammoth and Jinx.

"Back to your old habits Jinx?" Asked a disappointing looking Robin.

The pink haired girl shrugged helplessly and smiled. "What can I say? I'm just a very naughty girl." She tittered covering her mouth with her palm.

Mammoth began punching his palm in expectation. "What are we waiting for? Let's pound these nerds!"

"Hold on, we gotta wait for the other two!" Jinx said trying to calm down her large companion. "Where are they anyway?"

"They were right behind me. Oh here they come now, musta gotten lost. Hey! Over here you guys!" Mammoth turned around and started waving his arms to call for some other people they had brought along. Jinx smiled a sugar coated smile to the Titans who had by now started to approach them. "Sorry about that, these guys are new to the city."

Two figures jumped beside Mammoth then, their appearance making the Teen Titans reel back in terror. The look on their faces was prizeless as far as Gizmo, Jinx and Mammoth were concerned.

"May I present to you the newest members of the HIVE Five." Jinx spun on her heel dramatically and bowed elegantly behind her letting Mammoth get out of the way so that the Titans could get a good look at the new villains. "Sheeva and Baraka!"

"These are the Titans you spoke so highly of?" A dark skinned, eight feet tall, four armed gruff woman spoke looking down in disdain at the group before her. "These puny mortals will present no challenge. I will crush them in a mere instant."

"/You/ will crush them!" The other one, a horrible monster man with two rows of dagger like teeth and a disfigured face spoke next, his body had thorns protruding from his skin here and there. "/I/ will slice them! It's better! More blood involved!"

"What the..." Cyborg made a disgusted face looking at the two of them "What are these guys? Mutants?"

"They're other worlders!" Raven cried out. "They have the same energy pattern as Frost and Nightwolf!"

"Oh no.." Just when Robin thought things couldn't get any worse. His worst case scenario had suddenly come true.

His only hope now was if he could talk some reason to Jinx who was perhaps the only somewhat level headed member of the HIVE Five "Jinx, you gotta listen to me! These people are dangerous! If you got any sense left in you, you'll stand aside and let us capture them!"

"Pfft! Of course they're dangerous! Only the most skilled fighters are allowed to be honorary members of the HIVE Five!"

"No! You don't understand!" Robin pulled on his hair starting to get desperate "Where did you get these guys anyway?"

Jinx pursed her lips lightly and went to play with her pink pony tails "Well, it's really none of your business but... with Billy, See-More, Kyd and Private HIVE leaving us the team kinda came into some hard times. No one wanted to join in for some reason. So we sorta put a help wanted sign on the newspaper and these two came along."

"You got them off a help ad?" Robin couldn't believe what he has hearing.

"The HIVE Five assisted us in our time of need." Spoke Sheeva crossing all four of her arms looking solemn "They were kind enough to provide food and shelter were others simply shun and threw filth at us. As such, Baraka and I are now duty bound to assist them in their deeds as a method of payment."

"/She's/ duty bound." Baraka added his two cents again "/I'm/ just tagging along because they know where all the good fights are!" The horrendous creature pushed a pair of blades out of his forearms and grind them together eagerly to sharpen them, sparks flying off of them as he did so. "Now let's quit the chatter and get to the cutting!"

"Sounds good to me!" Jinx snickered "HIVE Five! Tear 'em up!"

No going back now, Robin's leadership instincts took over and said the best order he could think of. The very least they could do was to defend themselves. "Titans! Go!"

As the group spread out to take their respective defensive positions and cover all flanks, Robin thought he could rush immediately for Jinx and take out the leadership. If he could convince her that she was dealing with out of control murderers then he could tip the scales on his favor.

Unfortunately Jinx's fixation to attack Raven first meant he had to chase after her, which caused the horrendous Baraka to charge at him with blades extended. Tarkatan claws met against metallic bo staff letting Robin stare into the slit cat like eyes of Baraka, interestingly his breath smelled like nacho cheese. He had definitely been with the HIVE FIve for a while if he had copied their diet.

"Where do you think you're going, pup?" The Tarkatan pushed Robin back barring his way to Jinx before assuming a fighting stance, his front leg bent slightly and he curled his arms to the side. "I'll be your opponent today"

Robin recognized that position instantly "Oh boy, you know Silat don't you? Do all you people study really archaic martial arts where you come from?"

Baraka's pointed ears flicked slightly, his head tilting to the side resembling a dog's movements "Had a run in with a few of the tournament already I see. But it doesn't matter! I don't care in what realm I am as long as I can fight!"

"Tournament? You were in a tournament?" Robin barely had time to ask as he avoided a blade slice coming directly to his face.

"I didn't come here to talk, pup! You better start fighting back if you want to see today's sunset!"

Cyborg and Starfire went to the left to fight off the combined efforts of team HIVE Five's powerhouses; Mammoth and Sheeva. The alien princess took to the skies in order to rain plasma fire down upon the too hoping to pin them down so that Cyborg could take them out.

Her bolts of energy however collided with fireballs shot upwards from Sheeva's hands. With eyes glowing with green energy Starfire redoubled her efforts to blast Mammoth and Sheeva and threw another volley of energy. This also collided with Sheeva's blasts of fire only making the four armed woman want to start playing the projectile game with Starfire.

This was something the Tamarean warrior was eager to do and began shooting blast after blast down upon Sheeva who kept shooting her own attacks. Even if Starfire was proficient with this kind of encounter she hadn't taken into consideration that Sheeva had /four arms/ and she was shooting fireballs out of all of them. The bronze skinned girl realized too late that she had been drawn to a game she couldn't win and was overpowered by the fireballs, eventually shooting her out of the sky by a powerful explosion.

Sheeva saw Starfire fall from the skies trailing smoke crash landing behind some buildings and took the opportunity to go assist Mammoth with Cyborg. The two had a long lasting rivalry of who was the strongest and in any other situation Sheeva would have allowed them continue fighting honorably.

However that wasn't part of Jinx's plan, the female shokan had her orders. Whilst Cyborg and Mammoth continued trying to out wrestle the other, Sheeva swung her arm down at the Titan's legs scooping him to fling him up in the air and grasp his leg. Swinging him around as if he weighed nothing, Sheeva used Cyborg like a club and slammed him repeatedly on the ground before tossing him to Mammoth who delivered a tremendous punch to the Titan's face. The impact caused all the windows in the area to shatter and sent Cyborg flying several blocks back going through a few buildings.

"An impressive attack!" Complimented Sheeva clapping with her two pair of arms, Mammoth grinned stupidly and puffed his chest.

Beast Boy and Raven had the relative fortune of fighting Jinx and Gizmo. At the very least the two where familiar with their respective counterparts but it didn't mean the fight was going to be easy. Right off the bat Beast Boy had already gotten himself tangled by an electric web shot out of Gizmo's utility belt leaving Raven to deal with the other magician girl.

As they squared off, it wasn't Jinx's skill which got her the upper hand, but her cocky attitude.

"Ready for your beating, sweetcheeks?" Jinx grinned summoning purple hex bolts to her hands. Although they proved to be unnecessary, as her name sake, it appeared that the pink haired girl had managed to jinx Raven.

"Sweetcheeks?" Raven's mind immediately wandered off to think of Frost causing her to flush, a warm uncontrollable sensation began building up in her stomach. It was the wrong time and the wrong place to be thinking of such things. "I'm not... I mean- I don't want to...nnggh!"

Jinx raised a confused eyebrow when Raven began writhing in what appeared to be pain, but she didn't questioned it, instead she shot her hex bolts at the building directly behind Raven causing a large boulder to pin her down. "Shouldn't have eaten all that pizza Rae! It gives ya cramps!" Jinx said sweetly to the fallen sorceress as she skipped away.

Robin was aware of his surroundings and knew perfectly well that in no time at all the rest of his team had been defeated. He couldn't break away and go assist them however, Baraka was relentless and any second's hesitation would mean getting caught by one of his blades.

The Tarkatan went for an overhead swing to try and slice Robin's arms off by the shoulders, but this attack was met by the a staff block from the boy wonder's part. Robin moved to the side quickly to deliver a kick to Baraka's stomach succeeding in pushing him away, however the monster merely toughed it out and kept the pressure up.

Because Robin was focusing on those blades being swung at him, he failed to notice the roundhouse kick coming directly at the side of his knee injuring the joint and crippling his movement monetarily.

A moment was all that Baraka needed though and as soon as Robin flinched in pain and went to hold his leg, he got a face full of knee and a double slice to the chest when was pushed up.

"Not bad for a pup." Baraka kept him from falling by holding Robin by the throat. "But you were distracted the whole match, and where I come from that means death." Pressing the tip of his blade to the boy wonder's forehead, the Tarkatan general got ready to pierce the Titan's skull. "A pity you'll never be able to develop those skills."

"Wait Baraka, don't kill him." Jinx along with the rest of the HIVE Five members including Sheeva surrounded him.

"What? Why not? I thought you hated this group."

"It's exactly because I hate them that I want to play with them some more. It wouldn't be the same thing if I didn't have the Titans running around keeping things fun for us." Smiled the girl. "I want them all to live so they know how futile it is to try and stop the HIVE Five."

This made sense to Baraka's somewhat simple minded brain, he thought that Shao Kahn had said something similar to that before, something about playing with his food or something? Actually, that may have been Mileena. But whatever, they were both smarter than him anyway and so Jinx, so she probably knew what she was talking about, maybe.

"Alright." Baraka lowered Robin and retracted his blades.

"Good good, now hold him from behind for me would you?" Jinx snapped her fingers making the Tarkatan get behind the wounded Titan leader.

Robin's vision was still blurry from the knee smash to his face, his chest ached and burned after getting cut there.

Jinx brought him to attention by yanking his head upwards holding him by the hair so he could see her grinning face. "You heard that Robin? We aren't a joke anymore. We'll be doing to this city as we please, and when you come to stop us.. heh."

The girl pulled her fist back and slugged Robin hard across the jaw. "We'll just break you!"

Punch "Again!" Punch "And again!" Punch "AND AGAIN!" PUNCH!

Jinx rubbed her knuckles after delivering her flurry of punches to the Titan's face. She wasn't accustomed to hitting people in the face and her fists were going to be bleeding for a bit, but she thought she had made her point.

"Come on gang, let's leave this trash here on the ground where they belong." Cackled Jinx as Baraka dropped a bruised and bleeding Robin on the ground before the HIVE Five departed. Although Mammoth did deliver a parting gesture by kicking Robin softly on the side breaking several of his ribs. That was of course, a soft kick for Mammoth's standards.

The defeated group of Titans lay on the ground for a good half an hour. That was the time it took for Cyborg to run back from he was punched to, finding that all of his companions were too busy kissing the floor.

"Now can we call Titans East? These guys had done gone and gotten organized." Said the Titan's second in command as he picked Robin off from the floor letting him rest his arm around his shoulders.

"Not yet." Robin coughed out blood unable to see out of one eye. "I just realized something important, we have to get back to the tower now!"

################################################################

"And that's the last of 'em." Wheezed out Frost as she wrapped a garbage bag up putting them with a pile of others. It was late afternoon now and they had spent very valuable time in what Frost thought was menial but necessary things. At the very least now the factory was in acceptable conditions to live in, it wasn't spotless but it wasn't covered in refuse, though it would take longer for the smell of vomit to go away.

"We still have to carry them outside to the main street. I doubt the garbage truck circulates this area." Nightwolf said much to Frost's great displeasure.

"This is some bullshit!" Whined the kunoichi and flopped on the recently mopped floor. "We're supposed to be out there conquering this pathetic world, not toiling around cleaning shit! When I rule first thing Imma do is hire me a cleaning crew."

"A very noble endeavor." Laughed Noob Saibot as he entered the building carrying a box. The shadow wraith had made himself scarce before Frost could get him to clean the place with them. It drew the ninja girl's ire. "You're ambition rivals that of Shao Kahn my dear."

"And where have you been Mister Shadow Ninja? The least you coulda done is clean that friggin' junkie you sliced in half!"

"I was out getting you a present." Responded Saibot, instantly all of Frost's anger was washed away once the wraith placed the box he was carrying on a nearby table. Frost went all giddy with excitement acting like a girl half her age and bounced around her so called present.

"Really? For me? Aww, you shouldn't have Nooby~"

"I said don't call me that!" Saibot glared at Frost being quite sensitive for some reason, but Frost ignored his apprehension and moved beside him near the box he was holding.

"I'm sorry~ what did you bring me anyway?" The wraith decided to proceed and opened the box reaching inside it. "It was something I had neglected to bring with me in one of my outings. I was never any good with these things, but perhaps you could find it some use."

Noob waited until Frost stopped jumping up and down in excitment to reveal his gift. It was a laptop.

"Aah.. this will come in handy." Nightwolf approved once he got a look at it, Frost immediatly went to hugged and twirl about with it pressed tightly on her chest.

"Oh thankyouthankyou! Noob, I could kiss you right now!"

The shadow wraith leaned backwards almost in horror and put one hand up defensively "Just enjoy your gift, consider it a token from my part to solidify our alliance. Besides there are other reasons why I wish for you to use that thing, I want to know exactly what are the differences between our realms."

"Hey! You're right!" Frost said and hooked up the computer, fortunately the building still had electricity. "I hadn't even considered if this world even has Internet!"

Noob had chosen well in getting Frost a computer, he hoped that because Frost was much younger than any of them and hadn't spent her entire life locked in a temple studying martial arts she would know how to use those technological contraptions. As expected, Frost installed a connection and started piggy backing on Jump City's Wi-fi's connection. That was something neither Noob or Nightwolf could have done.

"Okay I'm in! Hmm..let's see." Frost went to type away with Nightwolf and Noob Saibot looking over her shoulders to stare at the screen. "Well, at least this realm has freaking Wikipedia. Hmm.." She went to check up on different websites.

Username: linkueininjagirl19

Password: ########################

Invalid Username or Password

"Damnit, my e-mail doesn't exist here. There goes all the webcomics I was following."

Frost felt a heavy hand rest on her shoulder and noticed a bit of frustration on Nightwolf's face. "May we perhaps focus on other things that are not webcomics? I am sure they have it's importance but I was thinking perhaps a map of the world would be better?"

"Oh, right right." Frost went back to typing on her newfound laptop checking on maps. All the major countries from their realm seemed to exist but there were a lot of city names she didn't recognize.

"Here." Noob pointed at the screen right towards the African continent. "I have never heard of a country named Wakanda in our realm. It would be an interesting place to visit and see what major differences are between this dimension and ours."

"Dude I ain't going on a trip to Africa right now, I don't even where we are."

"Put Jump City on the search bar then." Suggested Nightwolf.

Frost did just that and the screen showed a map of the Unted States zooming in on Jump City.

"Looks like we're somewhere near Cali, it'd explain the nice weather."

"Now check for Wakanda, see what events took place for it's creation." Noob Saibot insisted growing very curious about the place. Frost grudgingly went with it and tried researching for Wakanda, getting slammed by walls upon walls of text.

"Eldergods..it's gonna take me forever to read this."

"And to decode what in blazes are these articles talking about. I don't know any of these people they're referring to... Black Panther? Lex Luthor?"

"I don't suppose you could compress everything on a file could you Frost?"

The girl held her head at all the questions she was being asked. "That's gonna take even more time! Look guys, I ain't a friggin' computer hacker! I'm an assassin! This was just stuff I did on my spare time at the temple. Do you know how hard it was to keep a computer hidden from Sifu? It's a miracle I know any of this stuff!"

Only five minutes of surfing the web and she was already going insane, Frost didn't even want to think what would happen when she stumbled on the realm's imageboards.

"I wish we had someone that's good with computers."

Ask and ye shall receive. The second Frost had said her prayer a large explosion was heard outside rocking the entire building. The trio of kombatants tried to keep their balance and looked at each other in confusion.

"What the hell was that?" Noob said looking up just to make sure the building wouldn't collapse on top of them. Nightwolf kept his gaze sideways checking the entrances"Mayhap the Titans found us?"

"Shit!" Frost bolted out of her chair abd rushed for the door. She hadn't thought the Titans could somehow track her Internet connection, but it was too late for that, all she could do now was fight.

Frost, Nightwolf and Noob Saibot emerged from the factory's entrance looking for where the explosion was heard and saw a figure in red flying in their direction.

Noob Saibot placed a hand over his eyes to get a better look, surprised to discover that he recognized the crimson figure speeding in their direction. "That's Sektor!"

Frost blinked and looked up at the sky realizing that the appearance of Sektor was exactly what she had wished for. "I wish I had the Dragon Medallion!" She yelled hoping that the Eldergods would grant her a second wish.

"Why is he shooting missiles at random?" Nightwolf wondered out loud preparing to defend himself, Sektor was definitely the type that would start shooting things for no particular reason and hardly doubted he'd be interested in joining their team as Frost no doubt hoped.

"He's not. Look!" Noob Saibot pointed to the buildings directly in front of Sektor to see a woman dressed in green dodging Sektor's projectiles desperately.

"Jade?" Nightwolf gasped and looked at Frost "We have to stop them before they kill each other!"

"Or before Sektor shoots a rocket at our place." Added Noob.

"Aw hell no! I just cleaned the damn thing! Nightwolf, go talk to Jade, Noob, come with me and see if we can reprogram Sektor or something."

Their orders given, Nightwolf morphed into his animality to achieve greater dexterity and catch up with Jade while Frost and Noob Saibot used their own teleporation techniques to appear behind Sektor.

The android landed cutting his jetpack engine as sensors indicated that he had two new targets next to him and whirled around taking a defensive stance. His tracking devices zoomed in on Frost first and started analyzing her, yet after an extensive search on his data base couldn't identify who the kunoichi wearing the Lin Kuei colors was.

"Unidentified target. Initiating elimination."

"Yeah right, bring it on buddy!" Frost got on her Tong Bei Quan stance preparing herself for the android's assault.

Sektor initiated his attack by leaping at Frost with using his jetpack to push himself towards her in an attempt to hit her with a rising knee. The kunoichi slapped Sektor's leg out of the way and moved to the side letting the android hit nothing but air.

As he landed after missing his attack, Sektor turned around and pointed his forearm flamethrowers at the kunoichi who countered by extending her palms forward to blast the flames with arctic winds and nullify them.

The android leapt back taking consideration that his opponent had ice powers and switched strategy, opening his chest to reveal a missile launcher which he pointed directly at Frost.

"Target acquired."

Instead of shooting the missile at Frost however, Sektor pointed it upwards shooting at the sky where it did a loopty loop before heading back at the ninja girl. As she started walking away to dodge it, Frost realized it was following her movements no matter which direction she was heading.

It was a tracking missile, there was no way to avoid it.

So instead Frost destroyed it. The girl summoned an ice kunai and tossed it at the projectile in mid air causing a large deafening explosion.

She figured Sektor had only done that as a distraction and would attack at any minute. The girl sunk herself to the ground turning into water and just as expected Sektor appeared from behind at that precise moment to take a swing at her with his fist. Like before he missed completely.

Frost passed under him as he was winding back from the punch materializing behind him and curled an arm around his neck. She then pulled him backwards slamming him head first on the ground with a shoulder throw.

The android landed on his head and began short circuiting as he staggered back up

"System...failure... commencing self destruction sequence. Password: Hara-Kiri"

"No!" Suddenly Noob Saibot appeared from behind him and restrained the android who had begun imputing the code on his wrist panel. "Chan, it's me! Restrain yourself!"

Sektor stopped struggling when he heard that name. A name that he hadn't heard in ages, a name that resonated deep within his soul buried beneath circuitry and machinery. His eyes cleared up when he got a good look at Noob. "...Bi-Han? I thought you were dead! Scorpion killed you!"

"He did kill me." Saibot said with almost mirth to his voice, as if the fact amused him. "But he isn't the only one that can return from the dead. Much as he did when /I/ killed him, I have been reborn."

"Uh, I hate to ruin this tearful reunion guys but..Sektor's countdown is still ticking."

Both ex-Lin Kuei members looked at Sektor's forearm panel which was indeed in T-4 causing Noob to release the android so he could input the cancellation code in a hurry.

While Sektor was busy doing a system check up just to be one hundred percent sure he wasn't going to explode any time soon, Noob Saibot glanced at Frost who was busy combing her spiked up blue hair. Acting like she hadn't just fought a literal killing machine.

"You are good." Saibot admitted. "Extremely good. Those moves..they weren't all taught by my younger brother where they?"

"Nah, I've gotten into a few scraps before I joined the LinKuei. I mix up the Tong Bei Quan with some street fighting as you probably saw."

"It is...effective." Noob said sounding very impressed.

"Agreed." Sektor added as he joined them once he was finished scanning his systems. "She made me look like a complete amateur. Who are you warrior? Why do you wear the LinKuei uniform?"

"I'm Frost, top ranking student of the LinKuei..well ex-student, but that's another story." Shrugged the girl.

Sektor glanced at Noob Saibot then back at Frost "But you are a girl. Women are not allowed in the LinKuei."

"Oh, here we go." Frost had heard it a thousand times before and merely rolled her eyes.

Nightwolf spared her another rant of explanations on how badass she is by entering the scene, Jade in tow.

"Noob Saibot!" The Edenian Amazon warrior looked at the Shadow wraith and unleashed her Bo Staff standing on an aggressive Fanzi Quan stance. "I should have known you were in league with Sektor!"

"Peace woman, I have no conflict with you. At least not anymore." Saibot said raising a palm up as if surrendering.

The shaman placed a comforting hand on Jade's shoulder attempting to get her to calm down. "Jade this is going to sound hard to believe, but you are amongst friends here. We are bound to Mortal Kombat no longer. Those who were once foes can be seen as allies in this realm."

Jade looked at Nightwolf as if he had gone insane. "Surely you don't mean to say that these..monsters!" She pointed at Saibot and Sektor both with her staff "Can be trusted! Had you not intervened Sektor would have continued to try and slay me!"

"You attacked me first wretch!" Argued Sektor curling his hands into fists.

"Because you were sneaking up on me! I knew you were up to no good when I saw you hidden in the shadows!"

"People! People! Calm the eff down!" Frost yelled over the noise of the discussion causing everyone to quiet down. "Jade, you should listen to Nighty over here. No one is trying rip anyone's heart out. We've had our differences before, but out here in this foreign dimension we should stick together."

Jade straightened up from her fighting stance looking at Frost up and down. It occurred to her that while the girl wore a suit similar to that of Sub-Zero she didn't know who she was.

"Wait, are you a LinKuei?"

Frost nodded.

"But women are not allowed-"

"Oh my Eldergods! Can you people /please/ stop repeating the same thing over and over again? I'm a girl and a LinKuei assassin, deal with it!"

Both Saibot and Sektor laughed at Frost's comical reaction. It was a gesture that drew confusion from Jade as she never imagined such heartless creatures were capable of laughing, in particular Sektor, he never showed any emotion ever other than sadism.

"Come." Nightwolf's voice took Jade out of her shocked stupor causing the Edenian Amazon to look at the shaman "We are staying over at Noob's place, we can continue this conversation there. It can be dangerous out here in the open."

"You're staying with Noob?"

"Yep!" Frost gave Jade a thumbs up "It's big enough for all of us."

Jade's green eyes looked downwards feeling lost, she never though the day would come that she'd be sharing a building with demons such as Noob Saibot and Sektor. But then again, she had done that very same thing when she was allied with Shao Khan did she not? Would this be a repeat of her mistake or had they really all reformed here in this strange dimension?

Frost grasped Jade's arm, she noticed that the Amazon warrior was starting to be swayed to their side, but Nightwolf was right, if they lingered outside too long the Titans could come to investigate the explosions.

"Let's go Jade, we have a lot to talk about."

############################################################

Of all the Titans, Robin was the one that had been the most injured in their encounter against the HIVE Five and their new 'friends'. His right eye was swollen, three of his ribs where broken and he was bleeding profusely from the chest, no doubt he would have an X shape scar on his chest after it healed no doubt.

In comparison, the injuries to the others sustained were minimal, yet no sooner had he managed to patch himself up did he resume working on the case. He didn't even wait until Raven came back from unconsciousness and healed him with her magic, he was a man on a mission.

"I can't believe I have been so stupid!" Declared Robin as he sat down before the main computer hurriedly typing, a bag of ice taped to his eye to help with the swelling.

"What are you talking about man? You ain't making sense." Cyborg crossed his arms able only to look at the boy wonder with confusion, maybe he had been hit in the head too hard?

"I've been a fool to think that all the otherworlders would appear here in Jump City!" Robin whirled around on his chair and looked at Starfire, Beast Boy and Cyborg; Raven was set on the sofa nearby as she hadn't awakened yet. "Because we didn't know anything about these guys I've been operating under the belief that they were all single minded crazed warriors that killed for the fun of it."

"Aren't they?" Beast Boy almost felt like laughing despite the serious situation. "Just look at Frost and those two other guys that were with the HIVE Five."

"Maybe some." Robing turned back to the main computer. "But when I fought Baraka he mentioned something about being part of a tournament. If these guys were participating in some kind of competition that means they had ideals, motives, lives that extended beyond fighting."

"We need to find out who these people are. If we know what makes them tick, then we'll have a better chance at taking them down. The HIVE Five figured this out first which is why they managed to enlist Sheeva and Baraka to their team rather than fight them like we've had. I'm not making the same mistake again."

"I want you all to scour for any information you can find on the web for recent events concerning super powerful people that appear out of nowhere. Like I said, the otherworlders couldn't have all landed here in Jump City, I'm sure some of them have been scattered across the world. If so they would have made themselves known one way or another, check the news, blogs anything you can find."

"I also know it's for emergencies only, but if necessary access the Justice League's data base. It's a possibility they ran into some of the otherworlders too."

"On it Robin." Cyborg rubbed his hands and got to work whilst Starfire and Beast Boy sat down in the same computer panel. Neither of them had a clue of what they were doing and it would take their combined efforts to figure out how to even use their main control panel.

After a while, Cyborg called the others over thinking he had found something.

"Yo guys, check this one out."

"Put it on the main screen Cy." Said Robin and pulled back on his chair to look up. What he saw caused his unswollen eye to widen in surprise.

"Did you guys know that Darkseid invaded Metropolis city a couple of days ago." Asked Cyborg as he read from his computer screen. "No? Well that's because it lasted about ten minutes before it got totally demolished."

"Looks like our boy Superman had a bit of help from a local according to this article, wait 'till ya guys see this."

Beast Boy was stunned as he looked up to the screen "Whoa." He whistled "Is that guy seriously hitting Darkseid with a police baton?"

Displayed proudly upon the newspaper's first page was a picture of a man, garbed in full SWAT riot gear, running up to a very stunned looking Darkseid hitting him across the face with a tonfa. The dark overlord was leaning to one side in pain spitting blood and broken teeth. It was the picture of the century.

"Says here this guy, Kurtis Stryker it's his name. He came outta nowhere when Superman was rescuing people from Darkseid's goons and attacked the big guy himself directly. What's more he took a full on hit from his eye lasers and didn't get vaporised, this guy sounds like he's pro."

Cyborg scrolled down to show a picture of a burned up, but grinning Striker shaking hands with none other than Superman himself.

"He's an otherworlder." Robin concluded and switched the monitor to the broad line communicator.

"Well, technically we can't be sure about that till Rae wakes up. Then we can know for sure."

"We don't have any time for that." Said the Titan leader as he dialed up on the main screen. "Operator? With the Metropolis police department please, it's an emergency."

Beasty Boy still thought acting so impulsively was a bad idea and rubbed the back of his neck "Come on dude, I mean, the guy is dressed up as a police officer. You'd think if he was an otherworlder he'd be a crazy ice ninja, or a mutant with like four arms than shoots lighting bolts."

"Nightwolf is dressed as an Apache brave. If the other dimension has Native Americans like us then it's possible they have police as well."

"Hmm" The shape shifter looked a bit miffed "I woulda preferred a cowboy."

Robin motioned for Beast Boy to be quiet by making shusshing motions with his lips as he got someone on the line.

"Hello? Yes, this is Robin from Jump City's Teen Titans. I was hoping to see if Kurtis Stryker was around, I would like to speak to him. Yes...yes I'll hold."

Robin drummed his fingers slightly looking back at the frowning faces of his team. "Look guys, if he's not an otherworlder I'll just apologize. We got nothing to lose."

"Hello?" Someone else spoke the other line.

"Yes! Mister Kurtis Stryker? Ah hello sir, wait hold on, let me put you on our main screen."

The main screen flickered on showing the face of a..pretty nondescript man. He was wearing a SWAT hat to cover his military cut sandy brown hair, his facial features were chiseled and rough like someone who had gotten into to many fist fights but he had a kind air about him. He looked like your run out of the mill police officer.

"Hey!" He smiled on the big screen, though he narrowed his eyes noticing how banged up the Titans looked. Especially Robin "How can I help you kids?"

"Hi." Robin pulled off his ice pack from his face so it didn't draw as much attention, the shiner he had though was rather hard to miss. "Mister Stryker, first of all allow me to congratulate you on your victory over Darkseid. Not only Metropolis but the whole world thanks you."

Sryker shrugged bashfully "Hey, just doing my job." He said making it sound saving the world was just a regular occurrence for a SWAT member.

Robin instantly liked the man, he looked very down to earth in comparison to the other people he had met from the invading world. This made him wonder if Stryker truly was an otherwordler as he had concluded and decided to stop beating around the bush.

"Allow me to introduce myself. I'm Robin and these are my friends and co-workers the Teen Titans. We're a team of superheroes that defend Jump City much like Superman, but we're on the other side of the country. If you don't mind I have a few questions for you."

"Okay, shoot." Stryker said without ambling around.

"Do the names; Frost, Nightwolf, Sheeva and Baraka mean anything to you?"

Instantly Robin, along with the rest of the Titans, knew they had hit the nail square in the head. Stryker's face grew dark with worry and he got up to hurriedly shut the door of the room where he was.

"Yes.." He said at last "Yes they do." Robin didn't need to continue any further than that, Stryker knew something was horribly wrong if he was hearing those names again. "Oh man.." The policeman took his hat off and laid it on the side. "They're on your city aren't they? Is that why you guys are all punched up?"

Robin gave a solemn nod confirming Stryker's fears. "Damnit.. I hoped that I was the only one that had come here. I thought I was home free for good! It looks like you got all the bad apples too..but hey, did you say Nightwolf? That guy's alright, is he there with you now?"

"Sir.." Robin hated to be the bearer of bad news, but there was no other choice. "As of right now, Nightwolf is responsible for one murder. He killed a cop not two days past."

"Nightwolf did what!" Stryker leaned back on the chair he was sitting, his gloved hand reaching up to his head to hold his forehead. "It must be the spirits taking control over his body... without Raiden or the tournament he... oh God...Nightwolf."

"Mister Stryker." Said the boy wonder pressing on "We need to know where you come from. Right now we have confirmed that not only Nightwolf but Frost, Sheeva and Baraka are all running around our city commiting random acts of violence. If you want us to help your friend you will have to tell us everything you know."

Stryker curled his fingers on the desk he was leaning on, he appeared to be sweating now, his previous smiling face completely gone. "I don't know much." He sighed "I was just a grunt, I never wanted to take part of that stupid...martial arts competiton." The SWAT member looked up at the screen with pleading eyes. "Please, you have to keep what I say to yourselves. If word gets out of the stuff I did...you got to understand, I did what I did out of self defense. I never meant to kill all those people."

Robin didn't need Stryker breaking down right in front of him, he needed answers and he needed them now. "Sir, you have my word! Just please tell me all you know. Our city's continued existance depends on it."

"Alright." Stryker took a deep calming breath. "Alright...I'll tell you everything."

"It all started with a tournament called; Mortal Kombat."

##############################################


	6. Strike of Death

Tension was running high in the warehouse where the so called 'Konquerors' resided. The original members; Frost, Nightwolf and Noob Saibot had been getting along surprising well, even former enemies like the shaman and the shadow ninja hadn't so much as given each other looks of mistrust. Sure, they weren't exactly being buddy buddy, but at least they weren't at each others throats like Frost had feared they would be.

The young cryomancer girl knew she have been very fortunate on encountering such cool headed warriors that could see past their differences to get things done. She also knew that it wouldn't be the same with Jade and Sektor, the two wanted nothing to do with each other.

No sooner had the shock of being given hospitality by an undead wraith had passed; Jade was back to her old habits and tried to engage Sektor in kombat inside the warehouse. The Amazon had to be restrained by her old ally Nightwolf whilst Sektor only allowed Noob Saibot to get anywhere near him. The Earthrealm warriors sat on a couch on the far left side of the factory looking at the Outworld fighters who were huddled on the right side.

And through all that Frost was left in the middle.

"Stop acting like children you guys!" The young cryomancer hardly considered herself a diplomat, but it was up to her to keep her group together before Jade's black and white morality or Sektor's vicious programming broke them apart. "How many times do I have to tell you? We don't have to be enemies anymore! We're free! Free from Mortal Kombat! We can do anything we want!"

"And it shows!" Jade glared at Frost but immediately turned to what she considered to be bigger targets; Saibot and Sektor. "You say that you 'acquired' this warehouse? Surely it wasn't completely abandoned if you had to clean it as thoroughly as you say you did. More so I can still smell the people that once lived here. What did you do to them demon?" She asked of Noob Saibot.

Before Frost could interrupt, the wraith just answered honestly and without shame. "I ran them off and killed one of them. They will not be coming back."

"Murderer!" Jade screamed in outrage and pointed to the wraith "How can you associate with this fiend Nightwolf? And you Frost! Why do you act so unconcerned by the actions of these loathsome wretches?"

Frost threw her arms up in the air and rolled her eyes "It's not that big of a deal."

"Not that big of a deal? How dare you? He killed someone!"

"And how many have you killed Jade?" Frost spat back in such a tone that made even a hardened warrior like the Edenian Amazon pull back in surprise. "How many Tarkatans and Shokans have you killed? How many Centaurs? How many from Outworld when Kitana usurped the throne and attacked Shao Khan's armies? How many from Earthrealm when you worked for the very same emperor you now so desperately seek to destroy? Huh? Huh?"

Jade hesitated for just a second before her fiery green eyes flared up again. "That was different! It was in the field of battle! I gave them warrior deaths!"

"Okay." Frost looked lazily at the side to Noob Saibot with half closed eyes. "Hey Noob, that junkie that you killed. Did he attacked you first?"

The wraith gave a solemn nod and crossed his arms. "Yes, he came at me with a broken bottle."

"And so you killed him?"

The long answer was that Noob had swung a kick to the man's ribs to get him out of the way and he accidentally split him in half. However the short answer was; "Yes…yes I did."

"You see Jade?" Frost pulled her ninja mask down to show that she was smiling "Totally a warrior death."

The Amazon only shuddered with rage beginning to look even angrier if that was possible. "Do not compare his vile actions to mine! That man clearly never had a chance against Saibot!"

"So you're saying all the warriors that you killed where worthy of your skill?"

Jade started to lose steam, hanging her head slightly, but still clung fiercely to her beliefs. "…Yes!"

"Really? Even in Kahn's coliseum? Like, any regular Outworld chum that got pitted with you in the arena could give you a run for your money?"

"Well…no, not exactly"

"How about the other nine Mortal Kombat tournaments that Earthrealm lost? You didn't kill anyone that was /clearly/ below your skill?"

The woman in green knew what Frost did was just a cheap shot. She hadn't had a choice when it came to participate in the tournament, it had always been there as far as she had remembered, to be killed in it was a great honor. Yet a life was a life, and she knew that her hands were stained in blood, just like everyone in that room.

"I understand how you feel Jade." Nightwolf, who was standing next to the couch where Jade was sitting, spoke next. "You have been betrayed before by Emperor Shao Kahn, his deceit to make you believe that he was Kitana's true father made you kill in his name thinking that yours was the path of righteousness. You do not want to make the same mistake twice and are wary of this hasty alliance with Saibot and Sektor, but I assure you, our motives are nothing like the ones of your previous Emperor."

"Yeah totally." Frost added. "Noob even says he ain't gonna kill anyone anymore."

Jade's eyes widened in disbelief. "Surely you jest. Noob Saibot? Not kill anymore? That is preposterous."

Even Sektor couldn't believe what his sensors where hearing and turned his head to look at his old Lin Kuei ally "Bi-Han, is that true?"

"Don't misunderstand me." Noob Saibot gave a dismissive wave of his hand, not enjoying all the attention that he was getting. "I merely said that I wouldn't, as Frost so eloquently phrased 'kill people willy nilly'. She has a point in that it will draw unwanted attention to us all, but this was a mere suggestion that I decided to follow, she doesn't rule over my actions." The wraith turned to the ninja girl in question and however defiant his previous statement sounded he bowed his head in respect to Frost. "She is however a powerful ally and I respect her judgment."

"Thank you." Frost returned the gesture.

"It is still outstanding to hear that, you are not the type to show mercy, Bi-Han." Sektor spoke, failing to compute such a revelation.

Noob Saibot could be seen frowning at all the questioning, it felt like they were undermining his efforts to restrain himself rather than encourage him. "Do not think that I am going soft, there is simply no reason to kill anymore. There is no Lin Kuei here to honor or Shao Kahn to dictate our actions. We are...free."

"Basically, we're not impressing anyone, so why bother?" Frost clarified as she turned to look at Jade to see if she had finally been convinced. The Amazon warrior pulled her mask down and glanced at the ground looking thoughtful. A long silence draped over the room then causing Nightwolf to push up from where he was standing and rummage through some drawers idly looking for something. Jade could scarcely believe that it sounded like Noob Saibot had reformed, but did he need to? From what she knew of the wraith's past, he was technically a fallen hero.

"Look, I got an idea." Said Frost rising from her seat. "Lemme show you what we have to offer if you decide to roll with us. After that you can let me know what you think." The girl moved to the back of the warehouse calling over her shoulder before disappearing "Just gimme a sec, I gotta find some paper and markers."

Once Frost was out of sight, Sektor immediately turned to Saibot. He couldn't do any facial expressions due to his robotic helmet, but it was obvious he was looking at the wraith in questioning.

"Bi-Han, why are you taking orders from this girl? She is naught but a child."

That question caused the wraith to stare at Sektor with amusement on his blank eyes. "Child as she may be, she shows a lot of promise. You have witnessed that first hand Chan."

Sektor had to admit that Saibot had a point. It hadn't been a complete slaughter when he mistakenly fought Frost, but it was nothing short of embarrassing for an experienced kombatant like him to get bested by someone half his age and with far less training.

"I hate to agree with the demon, but I don't understand it either Nightwolf." Jade said to the shaman causing him to look back to the Edenian. "Amongst of all of Earthrealm warriors, you are the wisest. Why debase yourself by allowing this mere cub to order you around? Sheer power a good leader does not make, she clearly lacks the experience necessary for such a task."

"It's simple." Nightwolf responded immediatly as he procured a pipe to light it and place it on his lips. "Without her we would all be dead." Said he as he inhaled some smoke.

Jade frowned at a response that felt quite clumsy to her, was Nightwolf making fun of her? "Explain."

"Had it not been for Frost I would have been consumed by the evil spirits stirring within me and died somewhere in a pool of my own blood. I was ready to give up hope then and Frost returned that to me." Then he pointed at Jade with the long side of his pipe. "In your case, if it weren't for Frost's intervention you and Sektor would have surely killed each other. She doesn't think at all like us you see. We have been exposed to Mortal Kombat for as far as we can remember, but she is a relative newcomer, her vision is not clouded by rules that clearly do not exist here. Unlike us she can adapt and make the best out of this."

"Nightwolf is right" Noob Saibot added surprising Jade and Sektor, they never would have thought that such words would come out of Saibot's mouth. "Frost may be young, but her ideas are fresh and full of life. She is far better suited to the situation in which we are than any of us. She may have been a nuisance in the tournament with her juvenile behavior, but here is where her survivalism really shines. I am not ashamed to follow her lead despite her being much younger than me; a true warrior cares not for age, but for skill, for results. I believe following the young kunoichi is the best path."

"Aww, you two are such flatterers."

As it turned out, Frost had been hearing the whole thing while everyone thought she was out still getting supplies. She was not a ninja only in name, and knew when she could trust her teammates and when she should pretend she trusted them.

"Don't think sweet talking me means you're gonna get extra nice treatment from me, but it was a fair attempt."

Much to the embarrassment of Nightwolf and Noob Saibot, they found themselves outmaneuvered and teased by the young ninja. This however only went to prove their point that Frost was indeed a competent leader that shouldn't be taken lightly. Jade and Sektor however would still require a bit more convincing, but that is why Frost had brought along a large sheet of paper where she had drawn something.

"Can someone please tell me what this is?" Asked she placing the sheet of paper on a wall and used some of her ice powers to make it stick.

"That's a map Earthrealm." Responded Jade who recognized the world's continents and oceans.

"Exactly." Frost smiled and tapped it a few times. "This is ours now. All of it."

Jade gave an annoyed snort and looked at the girl with contempt in her eyes. "Ludicrous, that is far beyond your grasp child."

"Don't give me none of your lip, woman!" The cryomancer spat back drawing a glare from Jade again, Frost spoke with such authority that it was difficult to try and interrupt her. Jade might have had an easier time if Nightwolf or even Noob Saibot ignored her, but as she felt now she was within the minority.

"Don't pretend like you haven't felt it." Continued Frost "We are the most powerful people in this realm. You have sensed it too, you have felt their weakness, their lack of power, how frail the inhabitants of this realm truly are compared to us."

"I know what you're going to say, what of the Teen Titans?" She looked at the shaman and the wraith. "They have only been able to best us because they've caught us unaware and outnumbered. That's why I'm taking a hint from them and forming a team of our own. If we can get organized and work together as they do, there will be nothing in this puny dimension that can stop us!"

"Aren't you all tired of listening to orders from everyone else anyway? Sektor, isn't it high time you became the Grandmaster of your own clan? Why live under someone else shadow? Jade, did Kitana or Shao Kahn ever offered you a position of power other than a measly body guard? Don't you think you are better fit as a general? Nightwolf! Why are you listening to Raiden all the time about Liu Kang being the chosen one? It's obvious you are far more skilled and capable than any Shaolin Monk?"

Like the chilling winds of the arctic, Frost's words cut deep. She could clearly see this in all three she had mentioned, but particularly on Nightwolf. The ninja girl grinned when she saw on his pupil less eyes a hint of regret and anger.

"It don't gotta be like that any longer." She tapped the map. "We are the ones that'll be calling the shots now." Again, she pointed to her second in command whilst the shaman was still struggling to put his thoughts in order.

"Nighty, my man, Imma let you take the first slice. Pick any continent you want, it's yours."

Frost knew that if she could get Nightwolf, possibly the most selfless of the group, to show some ambition, the others would soon follow.

To her delight, the shaman began to look up from his pensive state and took his pipe away from his lips.

"I want..." His mouth quivered, to him it felt like he had never uttered those words before. "I want...my lands back."

All present but Jade were quite taken back, the Amazon wasn't as familiar with Earthrealm's history and she couldn't know of the plight of Nightwolf's people.

The shaman rose from his seat and approached the map, placing a gruff hand across the American continent to then slide it downwards. "The people shall be taught the path of the spirits and what was broken shall be once more set right." He continued trailing his hand across the map. "The air will be breathable, the foods worthy of consumption, the roads safe, the homes...whole."

Everyone stood there for a long while just staring at Nightwolf in silence, not quite sure what he was talking about anymore, though thankfully Frost cleared her throat to get everyone's attention.

"Well! While Nighty's busy turning the Americas into a hippie paradise, what chunk of land will you be getting Saibot?"

This one was an easy one for the wraith. "Europe, if it is anything like the Europe of our dimension it will be filled with dark secrets and forgotten sorcery. I want all of them."

"They are yours" Said Frost. "Sektor?"

"Asia." Responded the Cybenetic unit "I shall make the new Lin Kuei there and our rule shall expand to all the worlds."

"Good choice!" As she had expected once Nightwolf had gotten the ball rolling, the others would followed on his steps and admitted that they had quite a few greedy choices to make. All eyes now rested on Jade, who still stubbornly refused to say anything. "Jade, may I suggest perhaps..um... Africa? I think you'd like it."

"I don't want any part of this." Answered the Amazon

"Jade, come on, it'll be for the good of the world."

"But I will help you." Jade finished her statement before Frost could try and continue convincing her, the woman in green sighed in defeat. "All I truly want is to return home, back to Edenia, back to Kitana. For this reason alone I shall aid you, as it seems you are my best hope of finding a way back, but once I do so you can consider me gone."

"Alright fine, be that way." Frost tossed her hands up in frustration, some people had no hope she thought, yet at the very least she had enlisted Jade's assistance to her team of Konquerors and that was enough for her to be satisfied. "I still think you should take Africa, it'd be interesting to see what you can do with it."

"And what of you young Kunoichi?" The wraith spoke on his somber shadowy voice. "You won't claim any land as your own despite this being your plan?"

"Oh, of course I am. I'm totally calling dibs on Japan."

Sektor gave Frost a blank stare, though with his robotic helmet this was really the only expression he could make. "Why Japan of all places?"

"I have my reasons." Responded the girl while clenching her fist looking fiercely enthusiastic.

"I'm gonna make that little island country my bitch."

#######################################################

Robin and Stryker spent the better part of the evening talking, or to be more specific, Stryker talked whilst the boy wonder listened. The SWAT member turned kombat was, admittedly, not the best person to relate the events of the Mortal Kombat tournament. He was very much a product of chance, merely standing at the wrong time, in the wrong place, doing the right thing earned him the right to aid the Earthrealm warriors against Outworld's onslaught.

From then on, Styrker related his tale very much like he would a police report. He followed the orders of Lord Raiden, God of Thunder and protector of Earthrealm to vanquish the Deadly Alliance, eliminate the Dragon King and help prevent Armageddon in one desperate final assault.

While Styker's supposed report was filled with holes and missing information, Robin found it to be more than useful. He didn't need to know every intricate detail of the tournament, all those things that Stryker didn't know like who was the One Being or how the Elder Gods came to be didn't matter, it was basic existantial stuff. Robin wanted facts and facts he got.

Nightwolf; an Apache shaman, master of Vale Tudo, Tae Kwan Do and Okichitaw martial arts. The spirits of his Sin Eater ritual give him mastery of dark mysterious powers.

Baraka, commander of the Tarkatan forces; possessing retractable hidden blades in his forearms, he is capable of shooting chi through them, how he knows and seems to be an expert of Silat, Philippine martial arts, is a mystery.

Sheeva; a Shokan body guard and warden of the Emeperor's palace, she has monstrous strength, endurance and is also able of controlling fire.

All deadly opponents, Robin thought, but who he wanted to know more about was obviously the one who started it all.

Frost

She was a special case, as Styker continued, he admitted to know little of runt as he called her, only knowing that she studied under someone called Grandmaster Sub-Zero. She eventually betrayed him when she grew too ambitious and broke off from her clan. As he suspected, he did know Tong Bei Quan and had mastery over ice, but there was something more that Stryker warned the Teen Titans about her.

"She's crazy."

Robin frowned at this warning, the young Titan didn't like hearing such types of revelations.

"What do you mean, sir?"

"Baraka, Sheeva, Nightwolf, all those guys are professionals, ya know? They've known their stuff since the get go, that includes me. A girl like Frost though? She started from scratch and got to our level in a matter of months, that chick is a prodigy."

"But she's also a punk kid. Sub Zero may not have known better taking her under his wing like that, but I'm a cop, I got one good look at those crazy pit bull on crack eyes of hers and I knew instantly that she's got criminal antecedents. Probably from the streets or something, maybe ran with a few gangs before turning ninja, not sure. What I'm trying to say is that she's unpredictable, the other guys got a one track mind kind of personality, but not Frost. I'll recommend being extra careful if you got her on your turf, she assassinated her own clan of ninjas after all."

The conversation carried on for the better part of two hours, with Robin frantically taking notes and making short pauses to ask specific questions. Starfire, Beast Boy and Cyborg started out listening intently to the cop, but began to lose steam after a while and nodded off. They were sore from the fight with the HIVE Five and tired from patrolling for days without rest. Raven was still unconscious and asleep on a sofa, lucky her.

Unfortunately, Stryker declined Robin's offer to come and aid them in Jump City. Darkseid wasn't the only one that had been left greatly impressed by his sound defeat at the hands of the SWAT member. The Justice League had called dibs on him and would soon be carried off to their space station to see if he could join their prestiguous ranks.

Robin knew he couldn't compete with his mentor's wishes and bade Stryker farewell as he moved to turn the screen off.

"Oh and kids, word of advice." Said the cop "If you feel like you're losing against any of those creeps, turn tail and run. These guys...they fight to kill. Don't be throwing your lives doing anything stupid you hear?."

"We'll be careful sir, don't worry." With that, Stryker wished them good luck and ended the call.

The boy wonder turned around and looked at his very injured and half asleep team.

He wasn't liking these odds.

"So we really do have a bunch of psycho super power demi gods running around the city challenging people to fights to the death. Sounds like a perfect way to start the week." Cyborg said while checking on his forearm panel to make sure his sarcasm detector hadn't exploded.

"But friend Robin." The Tamarenan raised her hand to get attention. "Can we not simply talk to these otherworlders and tell them they should desist their actions? The HIVE Five were nice to Sheeva and Baraka and they are now friends with them. Why can we not do the same as they?"

Robin reached for his ice pack and pressed it on his swollen eye again. "I've thought about that Star. It doesn't sound like a bad idea considering what Stryker told me, Nightwolf and Frost would certainly make great allies, but I get the feeling they are not going to be very inclined to join us after we've fought them, Frost in particular."

"I get really bad vibes from that chick." Beast Boy shivered. "I could see it in her eyes, they're like a lion's right before it pounces ya. She could have really killed us back at the bank if we'd let her."

"And that's the problem." Robin agreed. "The otherworlders are not psychopaths, they're just used to figth to the death. If they always fight like any battle could be their last, it doesn't surprise me why it'll take the whole team to take down just one. Super powers excluded, we're dealing with bonna fide gladiators used to the most extreme conditions."

"Glory in victory or death in defeat." Starfire whispered, she felt as if her heart was shrinking and brought a palm to her chest to calm herself. "I cannot help but feel sorry for them. It must have been a horrible experience."

"If we can make them understand that they don't need to abide to Mortal Kombat tournament rules then we can avoid fighting them all together. I have a good feeling about Nightwolf, but Frost is liable to attack us on sight and we'll need to be in tip top shape to whether her assault, more so if the shaman is with her."

Robin reached for his ice pack and set it down on before standing up. "As soon as Raven wakes up, I'll have her heal us up so we can get a move on it. The sooner we're back in the streets to deal with this the better."

There was just one problem with Robin's plan. When he went to check up on the sorceress, he found that she was nowhere to be found on her spot on the sofa.

"Where's Raven!" Robin cried out in barely restrained horror, the girl's disappearance was just about the worst thing that could happen at that time.

"Uh.. maybe she went to the bathroom? I think I heard her move while Styrker was talking." Said Cyborg. "Lemme just make a quick check up on the scanners, I'm sure she's around here somewhere."

A few moments of scanning later, Cyborg furrowed his eyebrow while peering at his wrist pad. "Sensors are not detecting her in the tower. Uh oh... she's gone."

Robin slapped himself in the forehead and began to frantically start dialing on his communicator to hail the necromancer girl. Beast Boy leaned over to Cyborg so he could whisper.

"She's been acting really weird since you know what happened."

Fortunately Robin was too preoccupied getting incredibly mad to hear Beast Boy's comment and started limping towards the door. "She's not answering her communicator! This isn't time to be playing games, we can't take on anyone in this condition! If something happens-aggh." The boy reached for his side and went on one knee looking in pain.

"Dude! Calm down! You've got a bunch of cracked ribs!"

"You don't need to remind me Cyborg.."

"Well, it's starting to look like I do. Just sit tight, Imma make a few repairs then BB and I can start searching for her."

"Um! I am not injured as you are, perhaps I can go look for friend Raven first please?" At Starfire's request, Robin just gave a quick nod while trying to control the pain that gripped his body like a pincer.

"Okay Star, go and find her, take my infrared goggles or anything else you need, just find her and bring her here as quickly as possible, okay?"

The alien princess nodded and headed for Robin's room to get some items to aid her in her quest. "Yes friend Robin, I shall not fail you!"

The Titans should have known better to think that Raven would be rendered unconscious for long after taking such a measly hit to the back. Truth of the matter was that Raven had been awake as soon as the conversation with Stryker started and had only pretended to be asleep.

Once she heard the whole story, the girl had gotten the same idea as Robin and thought she could stop Frost from going into her genocidal rampages by talking to her.

The catch was that she had to be the one to do it, it had to be done on her terms. She still didn't know why she felt the way she did after what had happened with the kunoichi in the dance club, or why she couldn't stop thinking about her. Nor could she figure out why she kept touching herself at night imagining that it was Frost who traced her hands down her body.

As she flew over the harbor, the sorceress' felt her entire body quiver at the very thought of such an image, almost losing her concentration and falling to the waters below.

She knew she couldn't continue like that anymore, if she was going to get her life back together she needed to confront the one responsible for putting her in such a state. By herself, without her friends getting in the way.

Thanks to Stryker, Raven could get a much clearer read on Frost's whereabouts. Because she was an empath, the sorceress' powers relied mostly in emotions, both hers and of the people around her. If she really concentrated she could feel the sadness of a child crying miles away or the anger of a bandit committing a heinous crime. It was how she patrolled the city best.

When it came to Frost, she just needed to find the biggest ego around and she was sure she'd run into the cryomancer sooner or later.

Sensing that the girl was hiding somewhere in Jump City's harbor, but unable to pin point her exact location, Raven began flying circles around the are in hopes of somehow running into her.

Ironically, she was the one that was discovered first as a pair of eyes saw Raven's shadowy cloak covered figure flying about.

"Jade here, I got contact."

Frost and the Konquerors had not been idle after their deal was struck. No sooner had Jade been convinced of joining them, did the kunoichi put them all immediately to work.

As cozy as Saibot's abandoned warehouse was, Frost felt that it lacked security. Anyone could just sneak up on them as soon as they located their whereabouts to attack them. Therefore she assigned Sektor to secure the perimeter by planting alarms or anything he could think of around their place.

The cyborg assassin had done even better than that, he had quickly made several cameras that could be hooked up to Frost's laptop to keep track of the area, as well as handing all the Konquerors communicators of their own.

Jade was out installing a camera just at the right time to spot a certain sorceress flying about.

"What's up Jade?" Frost gingerly triggered her communicator feeling like a true professional.

"There's some kind of apparition flying overhead. Do you know if ghosts are common in this realm?"

"Ghosts? What are you talking about woman?"

Jade made sure to stay hidden in the shadows as she spied on, keeping her back to a wall and look from the corner of a building. "I'm telling you, I'm seeing the ghost of a girl. She is pale as moonlight and wears a heavy cloak to conceal her, I can barely make out her outline but I'm sure it's a girl."

The gears in Frost's mind began to stir "What color is her cloak?"

"Blue."

Frost didn't know if she wanted to throw her communicator at someone in anger or cheer for joy. But either way, she knew she had to go out and meet with Raven "Looks like I got myself a fan girl. Jade, come back inside I'll be taking care of this one myself."

After issuing her order to the Edenian warrior woman, the girl called to Nightwolf who was huddled in a corner with Sektor and Noob Saibot. All three of them were trying to get the laughably low powered laptop to hold four different camera feedback and weren't being very successful.

"What is it Frost?"

"Jade spotted that one Titan girl I was hitting on at the disco flying outside. I need you to look over things here while I go check what brings her to our neck of the woods."

Naturally the Apache brave had a few choice words about this plan. "A Titan? Outside? Frost, they are clearly looking out for our encampment to take us down. We should remain hidden."

"Nah, don't worry." Frost casually shrugged the warning off. "I can handle her by myself, she has a huge crush on me after we danced."

Nightwolf smacked his lips in disapproval "You give yourself too much credit. What if it's a trap?"

"Then I trust you'll come out to rescue me."

The shaman just sighed in defeat and looked down, hands on his hips. "I still don't like this."

"Relax man, we ain't dealing with Shao Kahn over here. Worst thing the Titans will do if they get a hold of me is put me in a pair of hand cuffs. If I run into trouble I'll just holler at you alright? That's why Sektor gave us these handy dandy walkie talkies."

Frost waited until Jade had returned to the warehouse before heading off outside, letting everyone know that Nightwolf was in command while she was gone.

Jade looked puzzled "Where is she going in such a hurry? And who is that person that I saw?"

"She is...a Titan. One of our enemies. But our fearless leader had a run in with her previously and they are somewhat in... friendly terms, it is difficult to explain." Indeed, the shaman wasn't sure he wanted to explain.

"I have heard much of these Titans in my stance here, but I have not had the opportunity to properly meet them. The brief scuffle at the dance club not included." Saibot said to Nightwolf when the topic of the Titans was brought up "Are they really that much of a pest?"

"Oh, you have /no/ idea." That wasn't Nightwolf who responded, but another very regal sounding voice heard from within the warehouse.

"Intruder!" Sektor raised from his chair disconnecting the USB that linked him to the laptop. "Intruder in the compound!" He repeated.

Nightwolf made a motion for all of them to make a circle and watch others back and summoned an energy tomahawk, keeping his senses alert to try and see who had entered their base.

"I don't see anyone." Said Jade while keeping her staff at the ready

"Sensors are not detecting movement either." Sektor echoed the woman's thought, his forearm flamethrower pointed to the shadows where danger lurked. "Where is he?"

"Up here." The same voice said again causing everyone to look up, the figure of a man was standing on the second floor of the warehouse overlooking the circle of kombatants.

"Who are you? Speak before we crush you!" Saibot warned the man feeling more annoyed than threatened by the appearance of the mysterious figure.

He could hear the man laugh as he emerged from the darkness, revealing his armor clad self.

"I go by many names. But you my overly confident friends can call me..Slade"

##########################################################

There was yet another reason why Raven couldn't sense Frost's exact location and was forced to rely on flying in circles. For all her over the top aggressiveness and eccentric behavior, Frost was still a ninja through and through, her emotions could be easily felt but she could conceal her power to avoid detection, rendering half of Raven's powers useless.

The sorceress knew she was somewhere in the vicinity though and it would be just a matter of time until she came out. She could afford to wait, if anything Raven was a very, very patient girl.

She didn't have to wait for long as the kunoichi she had been tracking was seen jumping from building to building heading further into the city. Raven followed her thinking that Frost had not seen her yet but refrained from calling her name out loud, she didn't want to startle her.

Little did she know that Frost was well aware of her presence, as the ninja turned around a corner losing herself momentarily from view, Raven picked up speed to stay on her tail only to realize that Frost had disappeared from sight.

Thanks to her training as a hero, she immediately knew that it was a trap.

"Hello baby." Frost's voice came from behind her causing the magician girl to deftly turn around, her heart skipping a beat when she saw the Lin Kuei ninja casually resting her back on a wall. "Did you miss me?"

Raven felt her cheeks flush, yet she had come too far and risked too much with the Titans to let her emotions ruin everything. Using all of her will power, Raven restrained herself from doing anything stupid, took a deep breath and decided to simply reveal everything to the other girl.

"Frost, I know."

"Know what babe?" Frost had taken off her ninja mask now to show her grinning smile.

"I know where you're from, I know about Mortal Kombat, about the Lin Kuei, about your sifu..Sub-Zero."

Frost could have reacted very negatively then, whenever someone even mentioned her former teacher, the girl had an almost uncontrollable desire to punch whoever that was in the mouth. Thankfully for all parties involved, she was more taken back by the revelation of such crucial information from a girl that by all accounts she barely knew to randomly punch things.

The kunoichi pulled back slightly and started narrowing her eyes "How?

It gave Raven no joy to see Frost aggravated like that, but she couldn't reveal her sources. No doubt Robin was already furious by her leaving at such a crucial time already, if she went ahead and told Frost about Stryker, she would be hovering dangerously close to traitor territory. "I just have my methods; I'm a magician you know?"

"That a fact?" Frost crossed her arms while shifting her weight to one leg, glaring at Raven, her posture dripping with attitude. "What are you planning to do with that info? Black mail me? I got news for ya babe, don't nobody cares about me."

Raven shook her head slowly, cloak still covering her completely. "No, I came here to try and talk you out of doing any more stupid stuff. Frost, Mortal Kombat doesn't exist here, you don't have to be an assassin anymore, you could be even one of us."

Frost immediately threw her head back in laughter, a hand going up to rest on her forehead unable to restrain herself, her reaction caused Raven to furrow her eyebrows gravely.

"That's rich! Me! A Titan!" Her laughter continued and the girl brushed a fake tear out of her eye. "I dunno what your sources told you about me toots, but I like being an assassin! I'm also perfectly aware that tournament rules aren't in effect in this dimension, it's why I'm taking this opportunity to have the fun I never had!"

"This is your idea of fun? Handing out beatings at random and holding up banks? …I hoped you were better than this."

Frost hated to admit it but the sorceress' words cut through her apathetic barrier and stung her. Something about Raven's eyes almost made her feel sorry for having earned her disapproval. The assassin girl gave a wry smile however when she realized something about Raven's tone. It almost sounded like if she cared.

"And why exactly do you want me to be a Titan so bad hmm? There a reason for that honey?"

Raven stuttered slightly and lowered her head so her hood covered her eyes. In all honesty, she didn't know why she was so concerned about Frost's safety, or even why she was so obsessed with the girl. It was a question that she herself couldn't answer.

It was why Frost had to answer it for her.

"Is it because you want me to be with you?" By now Frost had gotten closer to Raven, slowly walking in her direction which in turn caused the sorceress to back away from the cryomancer. She continued retreating until she finally ran out of room and was left pinned between an ice ninja and a wall.

"Well?" The spiky haired girl placed a hand upon the wall Raven was leaning on, her cold breath tickling Raven's blushing cheeks. The sensation was unnervingly pleasant, like a cooling breezing in a warm summer day.

Raven turned her head to one side desperately avoiding eye contact with the other girl; she could feel her toes curling trying to grip on to something.

"Ever since that night..when we..when we danced together. I knew that you aren't the monster that you paint yourself to be. I know your story Frost, I know how you helped defeat the Deadly Alliance." Raven spoke calmly, yet refused to see Frost directly until then. "Inside those layers of anger you have, resides a true hero. I can sense it."

Ironically, Frost had heard that kind rhetoric before; her sifu had said that, so had Lord Raiden. She had dismissed all that as mere hogwash however; she had her goals dead set and knew that her true calling was that of power no matter how she attained it. Honestly, it annoyed to hear that very same story in another dimension from a girl she barely knew. It made her have her doubts; perhaps there was some matter of truth on all that?

Frost leaned in forward further pinning Raven to the wall, her hand resting upon her flat abdomen pushing part her cloak to touch the fabric of her leotard. It made the sorceress cringe as if she was about to be struck in the face.

"Relax; I'm not going to hurt you." Frost blew cooling air close to Raven's neck causing the sorceress to shiver. It felt good against her crimson stained grey skin. "You seem to know a lot about me sugar, but I can't say the same about you. What's your name?"

The question made the Titan girl give a shuddered gasp, still unable to lock at Frost directly on her piercing blue eyes. All that time pinning over the girl and they hadn't even been properly acquainted.

"Raven." She said with barely more than a whisper "I'm Raven."

"Hmm…Raven." Frost looked as if she was savoring the name, lightly wetting her lips with her tongue "It suits you."

Raven had been deadly still after Frost had managed to sandwich her between her and the wall, yet she hadn't given any sign to the ice kunoichi that she wanted her to move away, it wasn't as if Raven had even attempted to push her off or anything. Frost took this as a sign to continue with her caresses and reached up to hold Raven's hood. "Let me get a good look at you." Smiled she as she lowered it showing the mysterious girl's pale and slightly flustered looking face.

"My my, you certainly are a cutie pie aren't you my dear?"

"What are you trying to get at?" Even if that was an extremely embarrassing situation for the Titan, she wouldn't be led astray by Frost's sweet talk; she wanted to know her answer. "Frost..I need you to tell me-mmph!"

A cool sensation on her lips brought Raven to a full stop, her eyes widening when she realized that Frost had lunged forward trapping her with a deep kiss right on her mouth. The magician's first reaction was to to struggle away, momentarily forgetting how strong Frost really was when she felt unable to move off without using her powers. The thought of escape slowly began to fade away as the kiss lingered, turning more passionate, Frost's hands circled Raven's waist to pull her close so that their chests pressed against each other. Raven's own hands began to twitch with desire, raising them to grasp the kunoichi's body for a tight hug and continue the soft exchange.

Yet as soon as the kiss had started, it ended. Frost pulled away before Raven could encircle her with her arms leaving the sorceress gasping for breath with her mouth wide open, her violet eyes half close feeling that her world was still spinning.

"Convince me." Raven heard Frost say drawing much confusion from the girl who was still recovering from her shock.

"Wh-what?"

"Convince me." Frost repeated. "I've never believed in any of this heroic stuff. There wasn't any motivation for me. If anyone can show me a better path, that someone is gonna have to be you Raven. You want me to be a hero like you so bad, you're going to have to let me know what I'm missing. Convince me."

"How am I supposed to do that exactly?"

"Oh" Frost gave a surprisingly girlish giggle, her nose rubbing against Raven's who felt that mischievous hand sliding up her abdomen, past her chest to touch her dainty chin. "I think you can come up with something, you strike me as the creative type."

Raven tightened her lips looking at Frost, a single glance to her coy smile and devilish eyes spoke volumes of what she desired. Would the Titan really sink herself so low that she was willing to sell her body like that? However, a part of Raven knew it wouldn't be a real sacrifice if it was something she too wanted. It wasn't as if she hadn't touched herself at night thinking of this very moment.

Wordlessly, Raven grasped Frost's hand with her own and brought it to her mouth, licking softly at her digits right before clasping her lips around her index and middle to suckle both her fingers. Frost's grin couldn't be wider, she approved of the sorceress' innitative.

It did not end there, once the currents began to flow, Raven was determined to live her nightly fantasy. Once Frost's fingers had been coated with saliva, the magician girl lowered said hand down her body.

Naturally, given her attitude and world experience, the Lin Kuei assassin was more sexually aware that her sorceress counter part and deduced what it was that Raven wanted.

Without hesitation, those wet fingers found the cloth covering Raven's love gate and sneaked it inside to being pleasuring her.

For what felt like hours, Raven desperately clung to Frost's body covering her mouth with her hand to avoid moaning too loudly. Her body rode that hand fiercely, hips bucking in and out in wild abandon and only when it looked like she couldn't handle it anymore did Frost speak.

"Hey babe, if I keep this up you're gonna make a mess outta your leotard."

Raven had her eyes shut tightly, beads of sweat running down the side of her forehead and barely heard Frost's warning, in her current state everything sounded like a dull echo.

Before Frost could repeat however, Raven began to shake her head and speak out in breathless gasps "Don't...don't..."

Thinking this meant that Raven didn't want her to continue from fear of ruining her clothes, Frost began to slow down her ministrations to give Raven a chance to recuperate, only to feel the sorceress' hand brought down upon her wrist and pull her back towards her steaming loins.

"Don't...don't care!" The Titan girl said, able to finish her statement.

Frost smiled and continued, causing Raven to bury her face on the kunoichi's neck muffling a loud and long moan once she was brought over her limit, fingers digging on the ninja's back.

From afar a lone floating figure watched through highly advanced binoculars.

It was Starfire who had found Raven and witnessed the whole affair.

The girl shamefully lowered her binoculars after seeing her friend in such a private moment and flew back to the tower. Her body burned in the inside, while her mind was left confused as to what to do next. How could she tell Robin where Raven had been without breaking her promise to the sorceress?

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Seeing as though they had spotted their intruder, The Konquerors broke ranks and formed a line of defense facing Slade.

The Terminator had somehow sneaked inside their warehouse and was now on the upper levels of the abandoned factory, looking down upon the four members of the otherworlder group.

Sektor spoke first in the long silence that followed after Slade had introduced himself. "How did you get through our defenses?"

"You're a ninja aren't you? Figure it out." Slade responded with a snide comment, Sektor may be a soulless, emotionless bastard but he was still quite liable to get angry, from under his helmet he frowned in annoyance.

Slade jumped down from his high perch and was immediately surrounded by the Konquerors with Nightwolf taking point by standing right before him.

"Tell us why we shouldn't maim you right this instant." The shaman was the most peaceful of the group, but he knew that a masked man entering their compound without warning could only mean trouble; he was prepared to take the man down at a moment's notice.

Slade's answer came in the form of reaching for his pistol and aim it at Nightwolf. The Apache brave responded by sticking his chest at him as if daring him to shoot him in the heart. This of course meant that Nightwolf was using his reflector shield, but much to his horror Slade traded his gun for his sword at that precise moment and ran Nightwolf through with his sword, the blade sticking out from the other side of his body.

"AUGH!" Nightwolf's eyes widened in disbelief when Slade guessed right on his reflector's weakness, it couldn't stop physical attacks and was then pierced with a sword.

Slade kicked Nightwolf on his chest to slide him off his now bloodied blade hearing the shaman say something about 'he tricked me' before looking over his shoulder. Sektor was getting dangerously close.

Placing his gun under his armpit, Slade fired several shots at the cyborg's chest plate and abdomen. The rounds were more than powerful enough to go right through his body armor causing oil to explode out his wounds. When he walked backwards holding his torso, Slade finished Sektor off with a shot to the head causing him to fall over.

And in just a few motions, just like that, half of the Konquerors were already defeated.

"Intriguing." Noob Saibot didn't sound very impressed despite Jade's gasps of horror after seeing Nightwolf and Sektor both be fatally wounded. "You seem to know our weaknesses. How did you manage that exactly?"

"Let's just say I've had some inside sources. Noob Saibot I take it?"

"Indeed, looks like we have much to discuss Mister Slade, after of course I'm done breaking all your limbs."

"By all means, try me sir."

"My pleasure."

After their polite exchange Saibot immediately went to attack in unison with Jade. Slade easily parried the bo staff coming from behind with him with his sword and moved in to throw a kick at Saibot's side. The wraith caught it, but what Slade didn't expect was a second Noob Saibot appearing on the side to punch him across the face while the first Noob was holding his leg.

Slade did a back flip to escape the hold and swung his sword at Jade to get her to back off. The Amazon blocked the sword swipe with her staff allowing Saibot to move behind Slade again and attack him a right hook to the ribs. Slade made a downwards elbow block to defend himself quickly spinning on his heel to swing the sword at the wraith's side, only to be blocked by Saibot's shadow.

In that opportune moment, Jade snuck her staff between Slade's legs and brought it upwards to hit him in the groin.

Not surprisingly, that was quite painful, and Slade jumped out away from the bo staff holding his injured area. However he didn't seem to be incapacitated after a normal man would be after getting hit there.

"Wearing a jock strap aren't you?"

Slade seemed to chuckle at that and gave a couple of knocks to his crotch "Never leave the house without it. Shall we continue?"

The Terminator trained his gun on Jade and fired a couple of shots to her, only to see them go through her when she went translucent. Jade rushed through the volley of fire to attack Slade directly with her staff, yet the man stepped sideways and kicked her on her hip to shove her away.

Saibot approached him then attacking him with a flurry of kicks and punches with his shadow to assist him. Slade parried and blocked each and every one, Noob only managing to drive him backwards.

"Is that all you got Mister Saibot?"

"Hardly, I have more where that came from." The wraith gave a scoff. "And so does he for that matter."

Slade felt sharp pain on his side suddenly as something pierced his armor, going right through his skin to puncture his kidneys. In a fraction of a second, Slade's trained mind told him that it couldn't have been Noob's shadow attacking him from behind, it was still standing next to Saibot, and Jade was still recovering from her blow, so who could it be?

He got his answer when he was turned around violently and received a left hook across the face from part of a very annoyed looking shaman. The pain on his side had come from an energy made knife that Nightwolf had used to stab him.

Nightwolf's thundering blow caused Slade's mask to crack making spider web patterns across it, blood pouring from the openings. When the Terminator pulled himself together he looked more curious than in pain even after looking like he could have gotten his jaw dislocated from that punch.

"And how exactly are you still alive after getting your liver pierced through?"

Nightwolf tightened his abdominal muscles and the bleeding just stopped. "I've had worse." He said almost casually rolling his head to crack his neck. "Much, much worse."

Slade noticed then that Sektor had also gotten back up and he was welding the bullet holes in his armor with quick bursts of his flamethrower. It looked like all that getting stabbed and shot in the head did for the Konquerors was piss them off.

"Hm..I see." Slade sheathed his sword and gun "Well it's been fun kids, but I really must go now. Ta ta." He must have realized that he was in over his head as he rushed towards the group that was quickly circling him, evading an arrow from Nightwolf and a chakram tossed at him by Jade. He did however get hit by Noob Saibot's disabler, the grey sphere of energy struck Slade causing him to stagger, momentarily forgetting how to defend himself and earned him a kick to the back by Sektor.

The Terminator was on the run now, but he had put some distance between him and his pursuers giving him enough time to jump up a window for a quick escape.

Instead of exiting the building as he had hoped, he ran into a pair of boots that pushed him back inside.

"I leave for one second and you guys are getting your asses kicked?" It was none other than Frost, returning from her nightly meetings with a certain Titan girl. She placed her ninja mask on to cover half her face and glared at the fallen Slade.

"You think you can walk in my house and take my shit? That ain't happening!" Frost didn't wait for explanations from anyone. She knew that the man was an enemy and went to attack him immediately calling to her hands her serrated ice daggers.

Slade quickly made a backwards roll to push himself back to his feet and unsheathed his sword to defend himself. In any other occasion, the Terminator would be more than a match for Frost, but getting stabbed in the kidneys by an energy knife hindered the ability to fight considerably. Thus the kunoichi had little trouble slicing and dicing the dreaded Deathstrike.

Slade pulled back, circling his way away from Frost to not get trapped between her and the rest of the Konquerors. This earned him a few more cuts on his forearms as Frost continued trying to disarm him so she could get in for the kill.

"Interesting." Despite bleeding from almost all parts of his body, Slade still sounded calm and in the mood to talk. "You fight just like Robin, little girl."

That irritated Frost a lot causing her to miss a few swipes. "Don't compare me to that twerp! I'm way better than he is!"

Slade laughed and covered his wounds trying to stop the bleeding. "So you've met him I see. Yes, you two seem to be quite alike. This is going to be very interesting."

"Your death is gonna be interesting!" Countered Frost as she tried to go for the double downwards stab at Slade's chest, though the man smacked the daggers away with the flat of his sword and moved aside.

"That may well be, but it won't be tonight. Now if you'll excuse me, I've lingered here too long." Just as the Konquerors were going to attack in unison, Slade pulled a grenade from his belt and tossed it on the ground causing a blinding flash to cover the room.

Everyone went to protect their eyes, some groaning in annoyance at the disturbance. When they recovered their sense of sight, much as they expected, Slade was nowhere to be seen.

"How can that be possible? I should be able to detect him!" Sektor cried in outrage and rushed back to the laptop where he began to type in things furiously.

Frost raised an eyebrow and dismissed her daggers addressing the rest of the team instead. "Who the hell was that guy?"

"He said his name is Slade." Nightwolf brushed his wound as he spoke, it had stopped bleeding thanks to his muscle contractions but it still hurt. "I don't know anything else besides that."

"Regardless of who he may be, he has proven hostile and now has access to our headquarters." Jade crossed her arms looking at her fellow team mates. "Gentlemen, we've been compromised. We'll have to relocate post haste, and after all that time setting the security cameras too."

A cloaked figure peeked from the window behind Frost and began to enter the building via levitation. "That won't be necessary, I can help…"

Instantly, Nightwolf, Jade and Noob Saibot got into defensive positions but Frost calmed them down. "Relax guys, she's with me."

"It's that ghost girl I saw!" Exclaimed Jade pointing at her

"Frost, why is that Titan with you? You bring them to our base despite us being in the warpath with them?" Nightwolf said next, though he was more concerned than truly angry. He felt as though there might have been a reason for Frost's actions.

Indeed there were, Frost motioned for Raven to come to her side and the sorceress descended landing on shaky legs, from what the others could tell from her hood covered face she looked exhausted and was breathing fairly hard, as if she had just ran a marathon. She was also grabbing hold of her cloak a bit too hard, almost like she didn't want to be seen at all costs.

"It's cool Nighty, don't worry." Smiled Frost noticing that her allies were staring a little too hard and wrapped an arm around Raven's shoulders protectively. "Guys, meet Raven, she's one of the Teen Titans, but we're in a truce right now."

"I see your group has grown since last time."

Frost nodded at Raven's statement, looking quite proud of herself. "Yep! Raven, meet the guys. This is Jade, Noob Saibot and you already know Nightwolf." She bent sideways to look at the far end of the room "Oh and the geek back there with the red armor is Sektor."

"Invalid parameters? WHAT DO YOU MEAN INVALID PARAMETERS?"

It looked like Sektor wasn't having a fun time playing in the computer and thus, wisely, the rest decided to leave him alone.

"Anyway, do you have any idea who that douche bag was Raven?"

Sighing at Frost's liberal use of foul language, the Titan nodded. "I do, as you know his name is Slade and he's what can be considered our nemesis. We thought we had killed him before, twice no less, but he has the nasty tendency to return as some kind of specter. It's a rather long story."

"I thought I detected some kind of sorcery about him." Saibot tapped his chin not having expected to find one like him in this dimension.

"Did you say specter?" Sektor nearly fell off his chair as he rushed back to the group, the laptop still hooked up to his USB while he carried the computer on his arms. "That must be why I could not detect him. It would haven taken far more than just ninja training to go through all the sensors I had placed around the warehouse. I should know, being one myself." It was a matter of pride for Sektor, he had been stung by Slade's comment of him not being a true ninja. "Of course, it all makes sense now, that's why there aren't any records of a security breach." Sektor kept typing away muttering some technobabble to himself leaving the rest to carry on with their conversation.

"So.." Jade looked up and down at Raven "Tell me again what is stopping this Slade from cutting our throats at night while we slumber, girl."

"The same reason why he can't do the same to us in our tower. Before, our security system was enough to keep him at bay, but now that he's some kind of undead I've set holy wards that prohibit him from entering our building. I can do the same to yours."

The Konquerors nodded in approval looking quite impressed and mostly relieved at this unexpected assistance.

"Looks like we can stay here after all." Noob Saibot clasped his hands together and gave Raven a respectful bow. "Thank you, Miss Raven." He had really grown attached to the place and was loath to leave it just like that.

Raven returned the bow to the still honorable ninja and was then followed by Frost rubbing cheeks with her "She's quite a piece of work isn't she?"

Nightwolf tilt his head to one side at the sudden display of affection, it was most unusual to see Frost rubbing up like that with complete stranger. Although as he remembered correctly, the Titan was the same girl who Frost had been pinning over at the dance club a few days ago. He could put two and two together, but still wanted to ask.

"Now it is not as if I do not appreciate the gesture, but is there a reason why she is assisting us so? We were fighting the Teen Titans nearly to the death in Mortal Kombat naught but a scant few days past, what is with the sudden change of heart?" Asked the shaman.

"Well, Raven and I have reached a certain…" Frost pulled gave a cheeky giggle pressing herself more against a very embarrassed looking Raven. "Understanding."

Raven merely sighed in despair, she knew that Frost wanted her to be the one that said it and she figured she might as well reveal their true relationship.

"I'm Frost's girlfriend now."


	7. All Comfy and Cozy

Authror's Note: My apologies for taking so long to update, changing jobs was giving me a real hard time.

Shout outs go to my beta reader for making this chapter not suck as much!

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The first rays of sunlight shone through the opaque windows of the warehouse signaling all inside that they had survived through the night. While the Konqueror's base was spacious and could hold a great number of people, it was still in the beginning stages of development. Some scattered tables and an old sofa composed what little furniture had been left by the previous occupants of the abandoned factory, leaving most of it bare.

Though the place was starting to finally look like people lived there again, Frost's laptop and Sektor's security cameras weren't very accommodating in terms of making sleeping there more comfortable. Most of the Konquerors would have to spend the night on the floor.

For some, this wasn't really an issue. Sektor took a chair next to the laptop, hooked himself to an electricity socket and underwent sleep mode. Noob Saibot didn't even need to sleep; he merely sat down on a secluded shadowy corner and meditated to conserve energy.

These left the rest to sort out sleeping arrangements, knowing they would need rest for the upcoming challenges. With the sudden appearance of Slade none of them wanted to take their chances and try to take whatever surprises this realm could throw at them exhausted.

In the end, Jade took the sofa whilst Nightwolf being far too accustomed to sleeping out in the wilds simply slept on the bare floor. They were all hardened warriors; a night spent on uncomfortable furniture would hardly give them pause.

Upon further inspection, it was found that the abandoned factory did have a place where someone could sleep in relative comfort. It appeared that one of offices had been used by one of the junkies to sleep in as it had a usable bed, a closet with clothing, a bundle of cash and some drugs. This discovery was, however, reserved for Frost, letting the girl have a comfortable place to sleep for the night.

This wasn't an offering from the rest of the group to the young fighter simply because she was their self-appointed leader. Even if Frost was the type that would take commodities for herself leaving her teammates to their own resources, the girl had a very good excuse to take the bed.

Raven.

To everyone's surprise, including Frost, Raven had decided to spend the night with the Konquerors instead of returning to the Tower. Supposedly her main intention was to at least place some seals to ward off Slade in case he came back at night to kill them all as Jade feared. This process would leave her considerably weakened and a prime target for capture if she were to try and fly back to her home, thus the least they could do was offer her a place where she could recover in safety. Raven could rest easy knowing that she was surrounded by demi-gods from another dimension ready to jump at the opportunity to defend her. It wasn't as cozy as the Tower, but it would do.

There was of course a much less noble reason why Raven decided to spend the night. Frost had pretty much ruined the sorceress' leotard after their 'encounter' at Jump City's harbor. It would be incredibly uncomfortable for Raven to fly back to the Tower with her soiled clothes. Plus, Raven would prefer dealing with an infuriated Robin than face her curious teammates who would wonder why she was trying to cover herself so much as she made a mad dash to her room. Something that wouldn't be likely since Robin would intercept anyway.

Thus the magician accepted the offer to let her clothes dry off and share a bed with Frost, who also took her clothes off even if she really didn't need to.

It was too obvious what would happen next; Raven was no fool and Frost was just a little too predictable when it came to matters of bed.

Raven sighed when she felt arms circling around her body while she slept, knowing perfectly well what was coming. She allowed herself to be turned around, to feel those cool lips touch hers once more and to be embraced by the other girl as she climbed on top of her. There wouldn't be a whole lot of sleeping involved after that for any of the girls.

Neither of them would have woken up at the time they did if it weren't for Raven's communicator. Raven could almost swear it sounded angry.

"Hmm…don't pick up baby, come back to bed." Frost stirred next to the girl as she too woke up from the loud beeping noises, she couldn't help but grin sleepily feeling almost like a married couple.

The sorceress wasn't very amused and pushed the covers off both of them, drawing an annoyed grunt from the cryomancer who tried to cover her face from the blinding rays of sunlight.

"I have to." The Titan's expression turned grim and she swallowed loudly, grasping the blaring communicator with slightly trembling fingers. There were very few souls in the universe that could make Raven nervous, or even give her pause. Robin was one of those select few.

"Raven here." She cringed out of reflex, expecting a severe warning from the Titan leader.

Instead she heard a worried sounding Robin who asked her if she was okay.

"Yes… I'm fine…" Responded the girl, ignoring her nakedness as she sat down on the bed to try and relax. From the sound of it Robin was under the impression that she had been out meditating. Raven didn't argue and acted as if he was in the right; an easy thing to do since Robin often was.

"I apologize… I just had to sneak out to find a spot to meditate. The stress was affecting me too much..."

Raven breathed out with a shudder of relief, Robin wasn't angry with her and in fact ended up saying he was the one that was sorry. As he told her, Robin had sent Starfire out to look for her and the alien princess had informed to him Raven was in a deep trance by the harbor.

Raven's heart froze. She had indeed been in a 'deep trance' by the harbor, but it was obviously not what Robin was thinking. The sorceress felt a knot in her throat tightened, while her entire body trembled lightly. She had been discovered; someone had watched lewd meeting with Frost. Could it have been Robin himself and he was just toying with her? Pretending he didn't know the full story to not bring up any issues? It did sound like something he would do.

Robin however, had declared that it was none other than Starfire who had brought this to his attention. That made Raven stiffen even more if possible, but Robin then continued on to say Raven could rest up for a while if she needed to, though he urged her to return as soon as possible.

"Thank you, I'll be back shortly. Raven out." The spellcaster turned off her communicator and released the breath she had been holding ever since she answered.

The thought dawn upon her that it had been Starfire who watched them and she had purposely lied to Robin to cover her up. She had not gone back on her word, and for that she was grateful. But she dared not think what kind of reaction Starfire would have after catching Raven in the act of doing improper public displays of affection with Frost. Never mind that Frost was an enemy, she was another girl! Starfire had a very delicate grasp on Earth's culture and this would no doubt confuse her to no end.

"..Damn it." Looks like she'll have some explaining to do to Starfire when she got back to the tower.

"Who was that honey bunny?" Raven gave a soft gasp when she felt Frost's body drape around from behind her, the girl's chest poking against her back.

"Robin." The girl responded, feeling as though she wanted to pull away from Frost's hug; however those overwhelming, foreign emotions rushed back to her causing her to lean back against the hug, her hand fluttering upwards to rest on the icy girl's own. Even now, being around Frost felt good; it felt right, as if she belonged there. Inexplicably, it felt like she could unleash her emotions around Frost without fear of her powers going out of control.

But she still had a duty to attend to and needed to draw away. "I have to return immediately."

The kunoichi smacked her lips and pulled Raven down causing the spell caster to yelp in surprise. "Pft! Robin! What do you see in that guy anyway?" Asked Frost as she pinned Raven to the bed; blue eyes locking on those purple orbs of the sorceress. "He's probably nothing but a punk."

"The same could be said about you." Raven had lost none of her sarcasm and dry humor; she easily turned the conversation around to mock Frost. "His hidden talents more than make up for the shortcomings of his personality. Something you two share."

Frost didn't know if she should feel flattered or insulted, so she decided to simply feel aroused and leaned down to kiss her magician lover.

Raven accepted the caresses and puckered her lips up to meet those of Frost, but started to push away before she could be goaded into another round of love making.

"Seriously Frost, I need to go."

"Killjoy." The girl gave an exasperated sigh of defeat and pushed herself away from her young sorceress lover. She figured it was high time she got out of bed too; judging by the sunlight it would be noon soon. If she were still living in the Lin Kuei temple, sleeping in would have meant a cold shower, no breakfast, topped off with a 'friendly' spar with Grandmaster Sub-Zero.

In retrospect Frost decided that she was faring much better now waking up in a warm bed next to a comely spell-caster girl.

"I do have to ask though." Frost rolled out of bed and reached for her assassin uniform to start dressing herself. "It almost sounds like you're scared of him when you can clearly squash him like a bug. What's he got that he has you wrapped around his pinkie?"

Raven checked if her leotard had dried off before placing it on and glanced at Frost. Her gaze was distant and unloving, but the kunoichi knew that was the girl's normal expression. It would be folly to think that she would be staring at her with love struck eyes after just one night of fun.

"Because I see in him the same things I see in you." Raven answered with far too much honesty for Frost's liking. The assassin gave a groan of despair and tossed herself to the bed back first, hands grasping at her own face.

"Here we go again."

"I know your contempt for him comes because you probably don't sense any superhuman energy, but there's far more to him than just that. In our team, we may all be great fighters, but out of us all he is the one that had to train the hardest to become who he is."

"Wait, I know where you're going with this." Frost interrupted with recognition in her eyes. "Those that aren't natural born fighters become the best warriors, because theirs is the path of perseverance" The kunoichi frowned as she tried to recall where she had heard that before "That's something Sifu told me." She purposely omitted the fact that Sub-Zero was referring to her when he said that.

Raven gave a slow nod of her head as she wrapped her cloak around herself. "His family was killed as a young boy. He lived in the streets for much of his infancy and was taken under the wing of one of the most controversial vigilantes on the planet."

"Without a doubt, his has been the toughest path to follow, and because of it he has a certain strength that the rest of us don't. When we have our backs to the wall we can count on him to push through any obstacle. He fights where other far more powerful people would fold, simply because he has never known surrender."

"It makes him look pigheaded to many, even arrogant, but to us he's our pillar of support; our core, our balance."

The whole spill just made Frost arch a quizzical eyebrow at Raven's little monologue. "It sounds like you're in freaking love with the guy."

Raven rolled her eyes, expecting such a crude comeback from the ice ninja. "I have a lot of admiration for Robin, it's true, but our relationship has always been professional. Besides he and Starfire have been… courting one another, I think that's the right word, ever since the foundation of the team. That and I don't get attached to people."

Again, Frost's overactive eyebrows were raised giving Raven a knowing expression, causing the Titan to give a scowl and flush slightly "With certain exceptions apparently. At any rate, you didn't get my meaning at all, from what I understand of your past and how you manage your team I think it is no mere coincidence that you share all these traits with him."

"Frost, I think that you may be your dimension's version of Robin."

Somewhere in Titan Tower Robin starts having a sneezing fit. He looks left, right, pulls cloak closer and shivers.

"Pfeh!" Frost had no words how to express her disapproval of such a proclamation, so she crossed her arms and gave a grunt. "No way we're alike. He's just one them teacher's pet, boy toys; whereas I knew better and betrayed my master."

"You're also a girl." Raven added as a matter of fact statement. "I didn't say you were twins, just parallel versions of each other."

Frost's lips tightened as she thought about what Raven was telling her. All the information was doing to her was annoying her as far as she was concerned. Ever since their first meeting at Jump City's bank Frost knew that she had found a rival in Robin. Being the overly competitive sort, Frost always relished the idea of fighting against someone worthy of her skill; but there wasn't anything healthy to her competition. It wasn't about making each other stronger. What the kunoichi wanted was to utterly crush her rivals and then move on to the next bigger target. Being compared to Robin irked her as much as if someone was comparing her to a bug she was about to step on.

There was something else that caught Frost's attention however. That devilish look that Raven was starting to recognize washed over her and she glanced at the sorceress like a cat that just caught a pigeon.

"See, all you're telling me with this is that you did have a crush on Robin and couldn't act out on it because he was a boy."

Raven clenched her teeth and flushed terribly, both embarrassed and annoyed that Frost would jump to such a conclusion.

The ice ninja was also going to milk that for all it was worth as she demurely walked over to Raven, hips swaying dangerously, attempting to pin her impromptu girlfriend to a wall.

Knowing perfectly well that if she got pinned again, Frost would most likely be able to distract her enough so she couldn't get back to the tower until late in the evening, Raven deftly moved her gaze away from Frost shutting herself down.

"I don't really care for such things. Gender is… irrelevant." Raven shrugged while still hugging herself, the dark sorceress looking like the very picture of antisocial.

"So you did have a crush!" The ninja kept prodding, unable to back down until she got a straight answer.

"No I did not! There was respect but I..." Frost gave a ferocious grin which prompted Raven to quickly change the topic. "Listen, Frost… d-darling." The sorceress felt like stabbing herself in the face after saying such a nauseatingly endearing thing, but she needed to get Frost's attention somehow. "There is something you need to know about me, my emotions are dangerous."

Raven turned her gaze to meet Frost's piercing blue eyes and related her tale of how she was the spawn of a human and a demon, cursed to herald the coming of his father when she grew older. A curse that could only be avoided if she had absolute control of her emotions, never to allow herself to feel anything lest she attracted her demonic father.

Eventually, Raven explained, she and the Titans defeated her father ensuring the continued existence of this world, but even then she would never be free from the danger that were her emotions. One wrong titter of the delicate balance of her center and it could send a wave of devastating dark energy to an innocent bystander.

"You are an anomaly Frost, all those things that I have done with you, the dancing and the caresses, they're things that I have never been able to do with anyone else as it would endanger everything around me." "But for some reason, my powers don't get out of control when I'm with you. I have yet to understand the reason why, but it's clear to me that there are no consequences to tapping into my emotions just as long as it's with you.

As it was quite common with Frost, she reacted in an unexpected manner and graced Raven with a cheeky smile. "I see, so you've just been using me to get your squeeze hmm? I never thought you'd be the type to take advantage of an innocent girl like me."

"Don't say such things!" Raven recoiled staring at Frost with disbelief on her eyes. "How could you even think that? I would never-"

Before the offended sorceress could keep going, Frost couldn't contain herself any longer and burst out laughing "Relax toots! I'm just kidding!" She tittered, enjoying the flustered look Raven was giving her. "You're so cute when you get defensive. Besides, a pretty girl like you can take advantage of me any time she wants."

The magician girl gave a sigh and started to move towards the door. "I've really lingered here too long; it's time for me to return."

In a strange show of politeness, Frost reached for Raven, linking arms before leading her out of the room. "Let me walk you there, wouldn't want any of the guys jumping ya. They can get awfully frisky in the mornings; especially Nightwolf."

The truth was that the gesture was completely unnecessary, Raven could have easily just teleported out of the building and directly back to the tower. Yet, she had to admit it was nice for Frost to act courteous for once instead of her usual lecherous self. The magician glanced sideways to her escort and braved to give her a light peck on the cheek, surprising Frost.

"Please don't get the wrong impression, Frost. It may be true that you're the only one I've ever been able to show any affection to without running the risk of things randomly exploding, but I really do… care for you." Raven's light purple eyes softened, feeling that unfamiliar emotion of caring well up on her chest, letting it run free but still with great hesitation. "You are a good person; no matter how you carry yourself you can't hide who you really are. Despite what may have happened in your dimension, I'm glad that you are here with me."

Why, Frost's cold heart felt like it was melting at such a kind gesture, prompting her to ease into Raven and return the kiss.

They were already out of the room and heading downstairs however, so at least Raven had ensured that Frost wouldn't try any other funny business while the rest of her team were looking.

"So wait a minute, if you're saying that couldn't show affection to anyone before me, doesn't that mean that I'm your first?"

Attempting to not make a big deal out of the situation, Raven simply closed her eyes and refused to answer directly, yet her silence was all the ice kunoichi needed to know.

"Eldergods! I'm..so sorry, I should have taken it slower!"

"Don't be." Raven smiled. "It was an enjoyable experience." Said she leaning up against Frost, letting the other girl feel warm breath blowing on her ear as she whispered demurely. "One that I wouldn't mind doing again."

As Frost purred eager to return the gesture, the two girls were interrupted by the sound of scuffling heard from downstairs. Thinking that they were under attack, the two girls rushed to railing that overlooked the first floor of the abandoned factory to see what was happening.

Much to their relief however, they saw that it was Saibot and Nightwolf engaging in some light sparring. No doubt the shadow wraith had been informed of the shaman's affliction and he had volunteered to assist with his uncontrollable fits of rage.

Sparring for a participant for the Mortal Kombat was no easy feat, not when one had the capability of piercing flesh, stone and steel with their mere fists; any stray blow could be fatal. Their endurance wasn't directly proportional to how much harm they could cause and as a rule it appeared that they could deal a lot more damage than they could take. Most of the participants were, or at least originally started as, regular human beings.

Because they truly wanted did not want to hurt one another, Saibot and Nightwolf were merely scoring points with Sektor acting as a referee to separate them when they got too tangled up. It wasn't true semi-contact however; a stray kick sent the shaman skidding backwards where he landed on the other side of the factory even if he had taken the blow on his forearms. Sektor decided to give Noob the point for a ring out.

Jade came and interrupted the proceedings by dragging the shaman off before he had a chance to get up, taking him to their improvised kitchen where he had promised to teach her how to cook grits. Murderous martial artists they may be, but some of them still had to eat, and with their meager resources grits was the best they could come up with.

"Our groups seem to be very similar." Raven could almost see a mirror image of the Titans in the Konquerors; though to be honest their rough housing was far more disciplined than in her team. The mystic Titan could hardly imagine Cyborg and Beast Boy solving their arguments via sparring with Robin used as the referee.

That was as all quite normal for someone like Frost, save for the fact that it was just a spar and not a fight to the death, and so she just shook her head. "There you go again with your little comparisons. Next you're gonna tell me we're each our dimension's versions of your guys."

Frost jumped down to the first floor and landed with all the grace of a true ninja. She teasingly looked up and offered to catch Raven in her arms, but the sorceress casually declined by floating down.

Once both the girls were down below, Sektor and Noob Saibot broke the conversation they were having to cordially wish them a good morning. Yet another thing the Titans could learn from the Konquerors; respectfulness.

"Thank you again for the protective wards Miss Raven, in the future I would like to get together with you to exchange notes on such things. I've always been particular interests for that particular school of witchcraft. If you don't mind sharing your knowledge that is." Out of all of the Konquerors, Saibot had been the one that was most grateful for Raven's intervention with Slade. The barrier she had created could even distinguish from Slade and Saibot, allowing the shadow wraith to utter a password to be given entrance while prohibiting entrance to Deathstrike.

Raven was unsure at first of how to respond. She could feel undeniable evil from the man in all black, hidden beneath his respectful nature. However, she decided to agree for now and worry about that bridge when she crossed it. Who knew? Perhaps she could sway all the Konquerors from the destructive path they had taken and not just Frost.

Noob Saibot and Sektor bowed to Raven as she announced her departure in traditional Lin Kuei fashion, while Nightwolf gave her a parting salute. Strangely enough Jade was acting remarkably antisocial and hid quietly, looking around the corner of the improvised kitchen the group had set up.

Frost on the other hand shamelessly pulled Raven in for a deep kiss in front of everyone embarrassing the poor mystic to no end. The Titan gave a soft smile despite her disapproval of such public displays of affection and with one parting wave she enveloped herself in darkness, teleporting herself back to the tower.

"I take it this means our grand schemes for world domination are botched." Saibot voiced everyone's thoughts out loud, adding just the right amount of snide that was common for the shadow wraith. It was no secret for the Konquerors what it was that Raven planned to do. With their so called 'leader' dating one of the Titans it was obvious that Frost would want to change their plans turning them from conquerors to defenders of the realm.

But it was not to be. Frost was a deceitful ninja by nature and her ambition was dead set. She gave a playful slap to the shadow wraith's chest and placed her ninja mask back on her mouth, the look on her blue eyes letting everyone know she meant business.

"That'll be the freakin' day! I haven't made no promises yet. I told Raven I would consider her offers, but until I'm fully convinced we'd be better off doing things her way we're sticking to the original plan."

Turning around, hands placed on her hips with billowy plumes of cold air exhaled from her mask, she looked at each one of her warriors in turn. Nightwolf, Noob Saibot, Sektor and Jade; with such powerful fighters at her command, Frost knew that no force in this realm would be enough to stop her.

"It's high time we took some initiative if we aim to conquer this city."

############################################################

Jump City liked to operate with the facade that it was an upbeat, economically secure city, where most if not all of its citizens where well to-do, good hearted people.

To the untrained eye this easily held true as Jump City was very aesthetically pleasing to look at. It wasn't a dark and brooding, gang infested city like Gotham for sure. Neither was it an industrialized smog covered citadel like Steel City, or a business oriented pearl of technology like Metropolis. It was a large city which walked the middle path; almost a tourist attraction with its beach and nice weather. A place were one could easily both live and work.

It was why someone really needed to know what they were looking for when picking spots were crime could flourish. Because Jump City had such an upbeat and outgoing community, it was easy to tell where the money stopped flowing.

Entire downtrodden neighborhoods or abandoned warehouses usually sprang up in between busy malls or popular universities, where criminals could easily make their bases of operation to ambush students and shoppers alike. Like in any other place, for every bright side of the coin, Jump City had its dark and ugly side. Places where it was simply not profitable for companies to spend their funds and were therefore left neglected.

Usually such places were condemned and set to be demolished at a later date as there was really no need for them, at least not by the regular law abiding citizens of Jump City. But there were always those who could benefit from such structures.

Many a high ranking criminal organization had seen the use of such abandoned districts as emergency hideouts, or even for their lower recruits to set their own bases of operations. The more of them scattered across the city, the harder it was for authorities to track any of them down. Therefore syndicates like the Brotherhood of Evil and the Hive Academy had gone through ample lengths to corrupt government officials and stall the demolishing of such buildings indefinitely.

In one such building, or underneath one of them to be more specific, resided the local Teen Titans antagonists; the rebuilt Hive Five. They were currently busy testing the skills of the newest members that completed their quintet.

Jinx wasn't satisfied with their run against the Titans, even if it was successful. Her return to the crumbling Hive Five had seen her with redoubled efforts to join the Brotherhood of Evil at all costs; convinced that with their newest members she could achieve the greatness that she sought.

Sure, they had managed to best the Teen Titans in battle once again; however for Jinx that wasn't really an accomplishment. They had been able to do that before until their group was dramatically plagued with a severe case of the stupid. She wanted to be able to beat the Titans every time they met, not just every once in a while when they got lucky.

The young hex-caster leader of the Hive Five was an ambitious girl, there was no doubt of that. She knew that her group was destined for great things and therefore expected all their members to act accordingly. Her strict behavior may have contributed to many of their members calling it quits, aside from their continued beatings by the Titans. But despite this she showed no signs of easing down any time soon.

Inside their rather spacious secret lair, located beneath one of the many abandoned districts of Jump City, Jinx had placed her team's powerhouse, Mammoth, against the four armed Sheeva.

It was a short sparring session: Mammoth had no idea how to outwrestle someone with four arms, showing his inexperience and all around younger age to the hardened shokan warrior. He went for his typical habit of trying to overpower his opponent by locking hands with them and start pushing them back. Roaring to try and intimidate her.

But really, how does one intimidate a Shokan?

Sheeva thought this to be a laughably amateur tactic to do as it was something that Shokan /children/ used in practice. She decided to go along with it though, giving Mammoth the false sense that he was winning by purposely walking backwards.

This caused the burly hulk to lean forward a little too much exposing his chin giving Sheeva the opportunity to throw a double uppercut with her lower arms directly onto Mammoth's jaw. The giant's massive body arched backwards due to the blow and Sheeva finished him off with a quadruple simultaneous palm strike directly on his chest and abdomen.

Mammoth crashed on the ground doing several rolls due to the momentum tumbling head over heels again and again, only to slam into the opposing wall of the building numerous meters away.

"Yeah!" Baraka cheered on from the sidelines, jumping up from where he was seated next to Gizmo and Jinx, pumping one large fist into the air.

"Now it's my turn!" The fierce Tarkatan warrior extended his forearm blades eager to sink them on soft flesh, his long serpentine like tongue flicking to coat them with saliva so as to cause as much damage possible. All eager and excited with a happy-puppy expression on his face… well a puppy with rabies anyhow.

Jinx saw this and wisely decided to intervene, much to Gizmo's own relief as well. "I think we've had enough sparring for this morning. Let's take a break." The tiny inventor slumped with relief, sweat drops forming on his forehead knowing full well he had lucked out from having to fight the insane Baraka.

"Aww" Baraka looked disappointed (puppy ears go all droopy, tail stops wagging); Jinx thought he resembled some kind of dog at times due to the way he acted. His pointed ears drooped down in a clear sign of regret along with the rest of his body; those long sharp blades of his retracted back to his body now that they were no longer needed. The Tarkatan kicked the ground and a little dust poofed up.

He at least seemed to comply despite his annoyance and moved towards the ring to meet with Sheeva. There the Shokan warrior was helping Mammoth back up to his feet by pulling him up with two of her four arms, then dusting his shoulders with the other two once he was standing up straight.

"A fair attempt young warrior, you have much untapped potential."

"Thanks, you too." Mammoth wasn't much of a conversationalist, being somewhat on the thick side. Besides, the multiple blows to his chin had rattled his brain something fierce and he missed the compliment entirely. He was far more focused on trying to pop his jaw back in place.

Once everything had been adjusted, Jinx reached for Mammoth's arm and started tugging on him. "Alright, good job today guys. As a celebration to the newest members of the Hive Five we're going to cook you something grand! I'm just gonna borrow Mammoth here for a bit and you guys just stay put."

The colossus stumbled looking bewildered, Jinx had nowhere near enough strength to pull him yet he felt complied to follow if unsure why. "But Jinx, I can't actually cook any-"

"I /said/ you're coming!" The hex caster stressed, making Mammoth mutter a grumbling 'right..'

"If it's too inconvenient we can assist you with the festivities," offered Sheeva and was strangely followed by Baraka who nodded. "I can help too! Wait 'til you get a taste of some fine Tarkatan cuisine. We use three different types of meats in all our dishes!" Hopefully none of the Hive Five original members were vegetarians.

Jinx wouldn't have any of it and firmly shook her head. "No, no. We just couldn't! It has always been tradition for the Hive Five to welcome our new members by throwing a feast!" The pink haired terror smiled so sweetly that Baraka and Sheeva could almost feel their teeth rotting from just staring at her.

"Really? We didn't do that with Seemoore and the other butt munchers." Gizmo felt compelled to add.

This drew Jinx to her very limits and pulled both the evil boy genius and his giant counter part by the ear. "You two! Kitchen! Now!"

Laws of physics be damned, somehow Jinx managed to pull both Gizmo and the massively huge Mammoth by their cheeks and drag them out of the training arena leaving a perplexed Sheeva and Baraka. Both boys went tripping after her, Gizmo's cursing growing slowly softer as the distance increased.

It wasn't often that the Tarkatan General and the Shokan Warden got to talk. The two were quite obviously rivals, both competing for Shao Kahn's favor. It was a little game the emperor played with his subjects to see who was more deserving of receiving his power; pitting them against each other in a violent competition. More often than not the Tarkatans, Shokans and Centaurs under the emperor's service committed horrendous acts of violence against the other in their attempt to become Shao Kahn's favorite. However the benefits of their rivalry far outweighed the liabilities since all three of them pushed themselves as hard as they could in any assignment given to them. This controlled chaos suited Shao Kahn's armies nicely.

In this rivalry there were no fiercer competitors than Sheeva and Baraka. Ever since they were both recruited into the emperor's service the two had been at each others throats to prove that their respective race was better. Which was ironic, seeing as they were often paired up together in missions.

It was this bitter rivalry and partnership that brought the two to fight side by side in the pyramid of Argus and now found them together again in this strange dimension, sharing the same young allies.

"Does it bother you, Baraka?" Sheeva crossed all four of her arms to see the trio of young villains make their way to the kitchen.

"Yes, a lot!" Answered the demon almost without thinking, causing Sheeva to look at him with wide eyes.

"You didn't even know what I was going to say you idiot." The woman pursed her lips and peered sideways at him.

"You weren't talking about if it bothered me that they didn't let us cook with them?"

"NO!" Sheeva exhaled air feeling greatly perturbed by Baraka's lack of intelligence. It wasn't that Baraka was a perfect imbecile; he could be come up with some surprisingly cunning plans. But it was clear that he acquired his rank of Tarkatan general for his battle prowess and not for his intellectual skill. For all the time Sheeva had known the Tarkatan, she had always found him to be incredibly simple minded.

"What I was going to ask you was that, does it bother you at all that we may not be able to return to Outworld?" Seeing as Baraka was, unfortunately, the only person from her realm she could talk to, she decided to hear what his opinion was on the debacle.

Sheeva was certain Baraka would once again answer with some kind of stupidity when he shrugged his shoulders, his ears flicking up and down in a canine fashion. However he paused before opening his fanged mouth, which led Sheeva to believe that he at the very least was thinking about it.

"Outworld…is gone." He began before turning to Sheeva. "Whatever loyalty we had with Shao Kahn died with our universe. If anything survived the explosion of the Pyramid of Argus, I doubt there's enough left to go back to."

"I didn't take you for one that gave up so easily, Baraka. What about your people? Aren't you worried for what may have happened to them?"

"My people, just like me, are survivors. If there are any of them left they will move on with, or without Shao Kahn. They'll find new leadership and a place where they can live, even if it isn't in Outworld." Grumbling slightly, Baraka used his forearm blade to pick at his teeth, his eyes half closing lazily. "Truth of the matter is that I really don't care, as long as there is someone I can sink my blades into I will persevere."

Sheeva chuckled at his response, her arms still crossed. "That sounds more like the Baraka I know. And what of our young friends? What do you think of them?"

"They cook well." Food and violence, the only two things Baraka had ever cared about. "Speaking of which, I'll see if they're about finished. I hunger for one of those mini hot dogs." Sheeva sighed once again, so much for that moment of intellect.

Hiding in the kitchen, Jinx peered from around a wall to spot Sheeva and Baraka talking with one another.

"Okay, so what do you guys think?" She asked her fellow Hive members and frowned when she saw the two frantically stirring some cake mix. Mammoth even had a chef hat on already.

"Uh…I don't think we're gonna be able to finish this cake in time."

Jinx puffed her cheeks in anger "We're not baking cake!"

"Brownies then?" Suggested Gizmo.

"WE'RE NOT COOKING ANYTHING!" Screamed the hex caster and took the bowl of baking mix away from Mammoth.

"But you said-"

"I was just trying to get you away from those two so I could talk to you in private." Jinx said, speaking more calmly now to her foolish team mates. It wasn't all that surprising for the pink haired vixen that the two would misinterpret her words like that. "In all seriousness, what do you guys think? Are they in or out?"

"Hey, anybody that helps us knock out those barf brains Titans is alright in my book." Gizmo grinned.

"We have done it without any help before." Argued Mammoth "But, yeah, they're definitely a step up from Billy, Seemore and that doofus Private Hive. Especially, Sheeva!" He exclaimed rubbing his jaw. "She hits like a truck!"

"Heh, figures you'd like Sheeva." Gizmo snickered and elbowed the giant on his thigh, which was the only place he could reach him. "I've seen the way you've been looking at her. I think someone has a crush!"

Jinx laughed "Alright Mammoth! Going for someone who's your own size huh?"

The behemoth didn't look very amused at the teasing and snarled showing his tusks "Gross! She looks old enough to be my mom! If my mom had four arms…and a mohawk. Look, I'm just saying she's strong and a team player. Which is more that I can say for Baraka; that guy is nuts!"

"Yeah." Jinx agreed and rubbed her chin. "I've noticed he's quite the loose cannon. Sheeva has proven to be very reliable so far, I think she told me she used to be a soldier where she came from. But I don't know about Baraka, he's like a frenzied animal."

This would require more thought, for his recklessness Baraka was a powerful warrior as Jinx had seen. He had defeated Robin all by himself and it would be a pity to simply dismiss him from the team; besides, there was no telling how a… creature, like him would react if scoffed. Not to mention Sheeva; maybe if one left the other would follow? Who knew? It was hard to tell.

"Fighting the Titans is one thing; it's a lot more chaotic. Let's see how they deal in an actual mission first before we make any rash decisions."

"Well, I'm not worried." Gizmo said sounding very confident. "He doesn't look so tough! If that snot eater, nose picking fool tries to do anything I'll give 'im a what for!"

Both Mammoth and Jinx froze in that instant, staring wide eyed at Gizmo. Mammoth and Jinx both had cheesy smiles on their faces, trying to cover the 'oh shit' expressions.

He had seen enough shows to know what that look meant.

"He's standing right behind me isn't he?" He said before doing a slow motion backwards, his head tilting as his eyes went all wide.

Gizmo was very glad he hadn't had anything to drink before that, because he would have surely wet his pants the moment he turned around and saw a vision of true horror. Baraka was indeed standing right behind him, and even the bravest of men would have panicked when staring into the demonic, razor teeth filled mouth of a Tarkan. And Gizmo was by faaar not bravest of men.

Baraka made a lunge for him to grapple him causing the tiny inventor to scream like a little girl. Both the hex caster and her brawler ally tensed up ready to stop Baraka from gutting the kid. Much to their relief however, they saw that the horrifying demon had lifted Gizmo by his waist and started giving him a friendly noogie.

"Haha! I like your viciousness, pup! You're well on your way to becoming a proper Tarkatan. Ya even got the head for it!" Baraka placed his gruff hand a top Gizmo's bald head and began rubbing it as he laughed. Mammoth and Jinx relaxed even if their inventor ally was still squealing like a pig.

Eventually Baraka let the little kid go giving him a playful kick on his buttocks, something that Jinx and Mammoth usually did so no harm there, and approached the counter sniffing about.

"Food's not ready yet I see; I'll just have a couple of snacks before we begin with the feast. Gotta work the appetite!"

"Actually." Jinx saw her opportunity to draw her team out of their lair and into the streets for some chaos. "Baraka, we just realized that we don't have enough funds to throw the party that we wanted for you guys."

Baraka's red eyes widened as he stopped inspecting the empty cabinets and looked at the pink haired leader of the Hive Five. "There's no food?" He sounded positively horrified.

"Not enough for what we had planned for you two. But that's why we're gonna go for a raid to earn us some dough!"

"When?" Asked Baraka, eyes filled with expectation, his blades almost ready to burst from his forearms.

"Right now! Let's just get Sheeva and we'll be ready to go."


	8. Hive Five, Konquerors and Titans, oh my

Jump's City museum had always been a personal favorite raiding spot for Jinx. When one was a magician museums held far more than mere old trinkets that could be exchanged in the black market for money. Ancient artifacts were always sought out by magic users to tap into their hidden power and augment their sorcery.

Because Jump City was such an influential city in its own right, it enjoyed an equally enterprising museum which often traded its displays with others. Showcases from Gotham and Metropolis fluctuated to the California city for the enjoyment of the public and it was there that most ambitious, evil aligned magicians preferred to strike and make away with the exhibitions.

Metropolis; being protected by the cape made stealing anything powerful from there an impossible feat. And while Gotham was not under the watchful eye of an invincible super powered alien, its local protector would ensure that any thief there would regret ever being born if they were caught.

When given the option of either failing miserably against Superman or have a chance of success but risk tremendous injury against Batman, savvy villains chose option C and attempted their heists in Jump City with the less experienced Teen Titans. They did make up for their lack of experience with numbers, but as a whole, criminals would much rather deal with them than the man of steel or the dark knight.

Jinx knew this quite well, despite being a local and not having the problem of deciding what city to strike. However, she did have the issue of other villains calling dibs on artifacts displayed in the museum. One had to be part of the Brotherhood of Evil to even get a shot at robbing the museum since, with that many villains operating in the same city, crime was often regulated to avoid in-fighting. Hive Academy members could sometimes get a pass to test their skills, their equivalent of a field trip, but with it going under after Brother Blood was found out to be brainwashing cadets, ex-students like Jinx, Mammoth and Gizmo had to fend for themselves.

The pink haired villainess had run into a lot of trouble before. With getting only the scraps while all the hot shot criminals got all the profitable locations and being forced to deal with all the flunky members of the academy, like Billy Numerous and Private HIVE, it should come to no surprise that when Kid Flash offered her a chance to change her ways she had seriously considered it.

Now however, she had some real muscle backing her up. Power that would allow her to shove her way through the scattered ranks of the weakening Brotherhood of Evil and let the presence of the HIVE Five be known. Respected and feared as it always should have been.

Besides, it was obvious that the only reason why Kid Flash had attempted to sway her out of her team was to jump her bones.

Sheeva didn't even break a sweat overpowering Doctor Light. The team had caught the mad scientist silently opening a hole in the side of the wall leading inside of the museum and he whirled around too late to see a large, three fingered Shokan hand reaching for his face. Sheeva had grabbed him before he could do much of anything and slammed his head on a wall repeatedly, cracking his helmet. Jinx had specifically told Sheeva not to split his skull as the Shokan originally intended to, since killing someone could bring them loads more problems than she wanted. So when the good doctor fell on his back he was still conscious, with Mammoth making sure he didn't stay like that for long by stomping his stomach.

"Thanks for opening a door for us, loser!"

Gizmo cackled and made a point to use the fallen doctor's body like a carpet and walk on top of him.

"Alright guys, listen up!" Once inside with the alarms deactivated thanks to resident boy genius, Jinx snapped her fingers and called the attention of her Hive Five. "Tonight's target is the Eye of Solomon. A talisman that is legendary for protecting it's bearer from scrying."

"Protection from crying?" Baraka laughed. "It takes more than a measly magic talisman to cure that!"

"No you fool! She means scrying!" Sheeva whacked he monster on the back of his head with her palm. "It means that you cannot be detected through magical means. The sorcerer Shang Tsung had a similar artifact. As did the Emperor."

Jinx grinned slightly, she was really starting to like the four armed woman. "Sheeva's right. With this amulet in my power we won't have to worry about people finding us the easy way. We can strike anywhere we want without worry of being followed. With my powers I can even neutralize radar detection."

Baraka grumbled and rubbed the spot where Sheeva had hit him "Urgh, I've never kept up with any of that stuff."

"Never too late to start." Jinx smirked before her cat like eyes glanced to Sheeva "Who's this Shang Tsung you keep talking about anyway?"

"Our former leader's assistant. He's likely dead, you need not worry of him. Now, about this raid…"

"Ah yes." Yet another reason why she liked the Shokan, she was very business oriented. "If you find the talisman don't try to grab it or it will disturb the flow of magic. Everything else is fair game, so go nuts."

This was their cue, Mammoth, Gizmo and Baraka rushed in through the hole in the wall hollering like rowdy children. "Quietly!" Jinx tried to yell after them but it fell on deaf ears, they were already tossing things about in their horseplay. She cringed and rubbed her temples whilst Sheeva placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"I share your pain."

As the two began to search for the Eye of Solomon the 'boys' came back running looking concerned.

"We got company!" Mammoth shouted drawing everyone's attention to a black hole appearing vertically from thin air.

"The Titans! But how did they get here so soon?" Gasped Jinx as she clenched her teeth, pulling herself together. "Hive Five! Get ready to fight!"

To everyone's surprise, it wasn't Raven who stepped out of the portal as Jinx had assumed, but a man dressed from head to toe in black.

"That ain't no Titan." Mused Mammoth, there hadn't been any time to hide or lay in ambush and were thus caught in the open. This meant that the stranger in black had spotted them as soon as he had stepped out of his portal.

"Is that..?" Sheeva gasped.

"Well well well." The masked man gave a dark chuckle when his pupil-less eyes glanced up to the strange group that greeted him, recognizing Sheeva and Baraka in their midst. "This is a surprise."

"Noob Saibot!" Both the Tarkatan and the Shokan said in unison.

Just as Jinx was about to ask if they knew him, more people appeared from the dark portal the man had created. A young girl with blue spiked up hair came up next followed by an assortment of equally strange looking people.

"Now it's a party." Gizmo huffed.

"Hey!" The spiky haired teenager girl pushed her way past her group to get a clear view at the other group. "If it isn't Sheeva and Baraka!"

"With some of the locals." Added a man dressed in Native American clothing.

"Losers hanging out with losers! Very fitting!" The girl with the spiked up hair and the ninja get up started to draw the hex caster's ire and spat back in defiance.

"Tough talk for someone who looks like they just walked out of an anime!"

"Look who's talking." Gizmo couldn't contain himself and added to the side making Mammoth and Baraka laugh, though the Tarkatan didn't quite get the joke since he didn't know what anime was.

Frost was through making small talk and cracked her knuckles loudly, her sharp blue gaze growing fierce.

"It's very nice that you two rejects found people here pathetic enough to feel sorry for you, but I ain't got no time to waste with any of you. I'm feeling awfully friendly right now though, mostly because I'm in a hurry so I'll tell you what. Stand out of our way and you don't have to get hurt. Hell, I was planning on ransacking the place, I dunno if y'all want dibs on it but that's fine, we're just here for the Eye of Solomon."

Frost didn't know if the group was there to stop them or rob the place too, for all she knew they were part of the Teen Titans.

Jinx scowled at the claim from the girl, like Frost, she didn't know who they were or where they had come from. All she knew was that she would not allow them to get away with the talisman that she sought. She was ready to make her debut as a big villain and would not let some upstart group get the best of her.

"No way! We're here for the Eye of Solomon! You can't have it!"

"Oh yeah?" Frost's eyes narrowed dangerously. "Then I suppose we'll just have to fight for it."

Both the Konquerors and the Hive Five tensed up at the proclamation, it appeared that a confrontation between the two groups was inevitable.

"Fine by me!" Jinx yelled "Hive Five! Let's show them who's boss!"

"You're gonna regret messing with us, clown girl." The ice kunoichi chuckled darkly as she signaled her own group forward. "Attack!"

###########################################################

Even if Raven claimed that she had spent the whole morning mediating outside, the first thing she did when she got back to the tower was lock herself in her room demanding solitude. This was normal behavior for her, and normally accepted, yet Robin had placed the tower in high alert and called Raven for her report plus much needed healing assistance.

Beast Boy had been received grievous burn marks due to Gizmo's electric net and there were Robin's cracked ribs from Mammoth's kick. Raven wasn't that good of a healer and could do little for the wounds Baraka's blades had left on Robin's chest; he would have scars there permanently.

That was just fine for the Boy Wonder; all he cared about was being able to function correctly, and if he could help it he would try to avoid using any medications with long lasting side effects. That was something of a last resort and not a topic he ever shared with the rest of the Titans. He had enough problems with their trust issues, last thing he needed is any of them pinning him for an addict.

The forceful visit from her allies did give one convenient thing for Raven; it reminded her that she needed to talk to Starfire.

Once Cyborg, Beast Boy and Robin had dispersed to prepare themselves to resume their patrol marathon, the mystic Titan approached Starfire before she could scoot away as well.

"I need to talk to you Starfire."

Raven's somber voice made the mighty Tamarean warrior shiver and she slowly turned around to face her teammate; a nervous grin creeping across her face.

"Y-Yes bestest of friends Raven?"

The magician noticed that Starfire was unusually sugar coating her words, instantly telling her something was wrong. If there was something that was reliable about Starfire was that she was an outstandingly bad liar. When pressed to say a truth she didn't want to, she would either stutter nervously or shut up and say nothing at all.

"I know you were spying on me." Raven didn't have any fancy approach to interrogation like Robin, so she went directly to the point. "What did you see?"

In typical Starfire fashion, the Tamarenean began rubbing at her shoulder whilst biting her lower lip, eyes darting to the sides rapidly as if looking for a way out. "It was not out of my own volition friend Raven. Robin had the sickness of worry when you disappeared and he was much too injured to go look for you, so I volunteered to do the searching and…"

"Starfire." Raven sharply interrupted her barrage of excuses giving her a serious; repeating very slowly for the alien's convenience, enunciating each and every word. "What. Did. You. See?"

The alien girl gulped loudly. "I saw Frost and you, by the harbor...umm… mating." Star looked off into space rather than meet her friend's eyes.

Raven's gaze began to slowly lower towards the floor, clearly in an attempt to cover her quickly reddening face with her hood. In the Tower's living room, several glasses were covered in dark energy and summarily exploded into a million bits. BB and Cyborg, who where currently in the room jumped and looked around for their attackers only to see each other.

Even if she hadn't seen Raven's powers getting out of control, Starfire twiddled her fingers nervously, staring at her cloak covered friend with worried eyes. A bead of sweat ran down the side of her head as she had no means of predicting how Raven would react.

Raven took in a deep breath attempting to control herself and began to look up to Starfire's emerald eyes. "You didn't tell anyone did you Star?"

The alien warrior princess shook her head. "N-No! Robin asked for my reporting, but I told him you were meditating. It was very difficult; I think he would have known I had lied if he did not have outmost confidence in me."

This was getting out of control; Raven knew that the first step for disaster was lying to Robin about what they were doing. Truth was that Robin really only trusted his fellow Titans as far as he could throw them, he was like his mentor in that regard. He never truly opened up to anyone, ever. If he had believed Starfire's lie it was probably not because he trusted her as the naïve alien girl assumed, but because he knew she was a terrible liar. It must have taken a monumental effort from Starfire to pull a fast one on Robin of all people.

It didn't really matter though, as Raven was well aware of, it was just a matter of time before Robin wised up and figured out what was really happening.

"This is going to be hard, Star. But you have to stay quiet about it, at least until I figure out what I'm going to do with Frost."

"Of course friend Raven, I completely understand!"

Strangely, Raven noticed that Starfire was grinning a little too broadly for this situation. She knew that the alien girl was ever optimistic, but this was a bit too much. She had expected worry from her, perhaps even confusion, but not outright happiness.

"Star?... Are you okay?" Raven asked in her typical cynical voice.

The orange skinned girl giggled, covering her mouth. "Are you and Frost the girl mates now?"

Back at the living room, Beast Boy and Cyborg were cleaning up all the shattered glass that had somehow appeared on the floor when even more dishes exploded right near them. The boys jumped and scrambled about in confusion, blinking a bit at all the things that were exploding looking puzzled, confused and slightly worried.

"M-Mates?" Raven's eyes went wide, her cheeks flushing scarlet.

"Yes! Mates! Friend girls! In the relationship! Lovers!" Every shout from Starfire caused another shattered glass back in the living room, one after the other bursting with loud POP noises like popcorn. When dishes were unavailable, Raven's powers moved in to furniture causing Beast Boy and Cyborg to hide under a table. When the table exploded, they dodged behind couch, only for it to get tossed aside; the two boys hugged each other for dear life trying to figure out what the hell is going on! Soon Beast Boy's and Cyborg's screams of panic could be heard on the hallway, though neither girl paid them any mind.

"Lower your voice! And… what makes you think that anyway?"

"Oh, friend Raven, it is much too obvious what is it you are trying to do."

"It is?" Raven was surprised; she wasn't even sure what she was trying to do.

"You have most clearly been smitten by the Frost girl, and now you seek to sway her from her villainous ways with the power of love!" The alien princess clasped her hands near her heart, a huge grin on her face as she beamed at Raven brightly enough to warrant sunglasses.

"I am not in love with her!"

There wasn't any mercy for the two boys this time, both the green shape shifter and the android were catapulted right out of the tower through the glass window and careened down into the ocean, screaming all the way.

Starfire's eyes widened as big as dinner plates. "You are not?"

To this, Raven respond by clutching her chest; feeling her powers getting out of control. Ironically the first thing she wished for was for Frost to be there with her since the cryomancer's mere presence nullified her powers.

"I'm… I'm in love with Frost?" All this time Raven had assured herself that everything she felt for Frost was simply the relief of finding someone she could express her feelings with without side effects; someone who actually needed her feelings in order to find a better path. And perhaps not a small amount of lust for the other girl. Frost was remarkably alluring, and she was undeniably amazing in bed. But love? The possibility now didn't sound so ludicrous.

The alarm sounded then, ruining the moment. Robin rushed in to find the two girls talking on the hallway still.

"Titans, we've got trouble! An alert has gone out from the city's museum!"

"Do we know who it is?" Raven mentally cringed, hoping it wasn't Frost.

"Don't know. All security systems from the museum have been deactivated, including the security cameras; only reason why we heard anything is because the fire alarm went off. I guess whoever is behind this did a really sloppy job."

Okay, so it couldn't have been Frost. Then again the ninja girl had shown she had her moments of foolishness.

"We're all heading there; I'm not taking any chances in lieu of recent events." Robin moved towards the living room with the girls in tow to gather the rest of the team only to find the place utterly trashed.

"Why is one of our windows broken?" Robin asked to no one in particular as he made his way through the debris and looked out. "And why are Beast Boy and Cyborg swimming outside?" Asked he with no small amusement as he watched the shape shifter 'doggie paddle' back to shore.

###################################################

The Hive Five and the Konquerors clashed with each other with tremendous anger for groups who didn't actually know each other. Perhaps it was because for each one it was the first real fight they had together against someone who was not an opponent other than the Titans; but whatever it was, it was clear something was clearly fueling their rage.

"Attack pattern Omega!" Jinx ordered her team as she jumped backwards followed closely by Gizmo and Baraka, while Sheeva and Mammoth fanned at the sides of their attackers.

As the other Konquerors got sucked into a fight of following Jinx and the more flighty members of the Hive Five, Nightwolf made an abrupt stop and checked his flanks noticing that the two larger members of the enemy group were getting around them.

"Frost, they're trying to box us in!"

The ice kunoichi was too far gone on her battle lust to heed the warning and the entire bulk of her team, minus the shaman, collided against Jinx and her honor guard.

Of course because so many of them were attacking at the same time, from the same side no less, all they did was get in each other's way leaving Frost to tangle with Baraka and Gizmo first if she wanted to get through to Jinx.

"Out of the way, nimrods!"

One had to give Frost credit however, even if she had no sense of strategy she was still a remarkably good combatant and easily evaded Baraka's blades and Gizmo's buzzsaws by jumping clear over them. She had already noticed that the pink haired girl was the leader of the group and she was intelligent enough to know that if she took out the leadership of a group they would crumble easily.

Maybe the reason why she was such a skilled combatant was because she had no sense of tactics. She always did things the hard way.

Heedlessly placing her entire team behind her, leaving them to deal with the rest of the Hive Five, Frost locked onto Jinx to begin her relentless assault. As the hex caster began to nimbly dance away, she found her movement halted immediately by the ice kunoichi stepping on her foot, using an incredibly dirty street fighting technique to hold her in place and piston punched her in the liver, followed by a cross punch to the cheek.

Jinx was hurt; there was no other way to put it. The wind was violently knocked out of her with the first punch and she was then forced to spin in the air by the right cross before falling gracelessly on the ground. Her vision went blurry, joined by the familiar taste of blood in her mouth.

"Good...Gods! You hit hard…" She wheezed and spat some blood on the floor before, wiping her mouth with her sleeves before staggering to get back up. "I..hngg..I recognize that fighting style. Are you related to Robin?"

That was the last straw for Frost.

"WOULD YOU PEOPLE STOP COMPARING ME TO THAT TWERP? We're nothing alike!"

"Well, yeah. Robin wouldn't have done a cheap shot like that."

"And he doesn't have these, neither." The kunoichi smirked under her mask, summoning her signature serrated daggers.

Jinx's eyes widened and she took a step back. "Uh oh."

As for the rest of the Konquerors, each and every one of them was, without a doubt, an incredibly capable warrior, more than skillful enough to defeat a fair number of opponents by themselves. There was just one problem though. None of them were used to fight in a group.

Nightwolf noticed with not small amount of horror that Noob Saibot, Jade and Sektor had gotten bottle chocked and were pushing against each other to attack Gizmo and Baraka, who were still barring the way to assist Frost. As they tripped over each other to try and reach them, the boy genius and the Tarkatan general took pot shots at them driving them back with blade and shot.

Sheeva and Mammoth were now free to attack them from behind, with only an Apache shaman barring their way.

Rather than engaging him directly, Sheeva stuck to Jinx's battle plan and peppered the brave with a great blast of fire shot from all four of her hands.

When he reflected it, as Sheeva knew perfectly well he would, the Shokan warrior jumped clear over her own fireball letting it strike Sektor in the back instead.

Nightwolf didn't even have time to wince; he was already getting body checked on the side by a shoulder tackle from Mammoth which sent him crashing against some of the museum's exhibitions causing thousands of dollars in damage.

When Sektor whirled around to see who had hit him from behind, Gizmo snuck up to his back and slapped an electromagnetic disruptor on him causing him to short circuit. The cyborg assassin flailed about suddenly unable to control any of his limbs then fell on the ground in a desperate attempt to remove the disruptor.

As Saibot began to move in order to call his shadow to assist him, Sheeva fell on top of him with all her might, utterly shattering his collarbone and shoulders. These would regenerate after a moment, thanks to his undead nature and by virtue of being a participant of the mortal tournament. Even so, it would be far from instantaneous and the pain was more than enough to render the shadow ninja helpless for a good chunk of time.

This left Jade to try and fend off Baraka by herself. Not an impossible feat, but ultimately pointless as the Tarkatan was just there to make her waste time as he had been instructed to do. Such was his position in the Omega attack formation.

Even then, Jinx could not possibly hope to defeat Frost with sheer skill alone, the Hive Five leader was not a trained assassin like Frost was, but it didn't matter. Jinx couldn't beat Robin in a hand to hand fight either and yet they had defeated the Titans just as they were now defeating the Konquerors, all Jinx had to do was stall Frost.

Jinx sent a hex bolt directly towards the ice ninja. Frost made an X block with her serrated daggers, thinking it was just a chi blast, unaware of the girl's bad luck abilities. When the hex touched her ice daggers, they shattered leaving her momentarily exposed, a moment Jinx used to leap towards her and kick her on the stomach.

Staggering backwards she fell, hitting Jade on her back while the Amazon was backpedaling away from the Hive Five members that threatened to swarm her.

"A fine mess you've got us in, Frost."

"We're losing?" The girl whispered to herself in barely restrained anger "How can we be losing!"

With the Hive Five closing in all around them, Jade and Frost prepared to make a final stand against their counter parts. Or rather, Jade was getting ready to defend herself as best she could while Frost seemed far too shocked at the turn of events to even attempt coherent thought. For all intended purposes she had already been defeated.

It was then that they received some unlikely assistance from the Teen Titans themselves as they burst onto the scene.

"Haha! Time for dessert!" Baraka turned towards their new foes and grinded his blades together causing sparks to fly out, looking more than ready to take on the next wave of opponents.

Ultimately, Jinx had only used this mission as a way to test the new additions to their team. The Hive Five had always prided themselves for the skill of their members, it wasn't until very recently when they were forced to admit just about any skilless chump, yet their true power had always resided on the fact they were extremely well coordinated. Even though Sheeva and Baraka looked eager to keep fighting, Jinx would order them back to see if they complied, it was make or break for them.

"Forget it! Hive Five, fall back!"

As expected Baraka was the only one that complained and looked back at the pink haired girl. "Huh? But we can take these pups easy!"

"We've run out of time, the coppers will be here any second for sure, let's get outta here!"

The Tarkatan grumbled and went along with it, shooting a glare to the Titans before following after his new team.

Robin was threading carefully here, the scene was not one he had expected. The Hive Five battling someone else? Someone, that upon closer look, he recognized.

"Frost!" The Teen Titan leader spotted the unmistakable spiky, blue-haired girl standing behind a dark skinned woman dressed in green carrying a bo staff. Hearing her name called by an irritatingly familiar voice, the ninja snapped out of her defeated stupor staring at the Titans barring the door way.

"Crap, it's them! Noob get us out of here!"

Through a monumental effort from his part, the shadow wraith peeled his face off the floor and created a portal on the ground, holding it open with all the strength he had left.

Jade looked confused at the sudden retreat, glancing from left to right as Frost made a run for the portal closely followed by Nightwolf taking Sektor with him with a fireman carry. "I don't understand! Who are they?"

"Explain later, go now!" Frost shoved Jade into the portal before the shaman jumped with his robotic passenger.

Before the ice kunoichi made her own jump, her eyes crossed Raven's glare. The ice ninja knew she was in a whole load of trouble now.

"Umm.. bye!" With a simple parting gesture, Frost grasped Saibot's hand pulling them both into the portal which closed behin them, leaving the Teen Titans to ponder what they had saw amongst the remains of what was Jump City's museum main exhibition room.


	9. Crossed Out

Robin had treaded carefully when the Titans found the Hive Five at the museum clearly fighting with Frost and her group of Otherworlders. His hesitation had allowed both groups to escape far too quickly to give chase. However, the situation had been dealt with and museum damages had been limited; relatively speaking at least. Police did find the knocked out body of Doctor Light outside the museum, but that registered in a file that Cyborg liked to classify as 'meh

The Boy Wonder was many things, martial artist, super hero, acrobat, but more importantly, he was also a detective. While his Titan allies were at a loss as to what to make of the scene, Robin quickly deduced the events that had transpired in the museum merely by looking carefully at the signs of struggle on the floor and other furniture.

A grand total of ten people had gotten involved in the fight. That meant the revised Hive Five versus Frost, Nightwolf and three unidentified Otherworlders.

Robin hadn't been quick enough to tell Cyborg to film the event, but the Titan leader didn't need a camera when he had photographic memory.

He acquired a police sketch artist and went about describing every miniscule detail of the people he saw at the crime scene. He already knew Frost and Nightwolf's mug shots by heart, but even after seeing the three unknown fighters just one time, he impressed the sketch artist by giving her the most detailed recounting of faces she had ever heard.

Once they were back in the tower, and after procuring three copies of the sketches, Robin sat everyone in the living room and pasted the copies on a billboard showing a man with a robotic helmet, a long haired woman with Middle Eastern features and a hooded, masked man.

Beast Boy and Cyborg looked at each other guiltily; the hooded man was clearly one of the breakdancers from the club.

"Dude we're in sooo much trouble." The shapeshifter whispered to Cyborg.

"Be cool, be cool. I got this." He answered, although it sounded he was mostly trying to calm himself.

Technically Starfire and Raven could also take part of the blame, but the mystic looked far too grumpy to feel nervous. The Tamarean also appeared to be worried about her friend more than her own safety. Starfire kept stealing side glances at the brooding sorceress who appeared to have a dark cloud hanging over her head, literally in this sense. The mystic Titan didn't want to jump to conclusions, but it was possible for Frost to go back on her word about changing her ways. It was also not out of the question that she was could be working with the Hive Five and attempted to rob the museum with them before business went sour.

That meant that she was using her.

She took advantage of her trust and she used her!

Oh, she would pay for that. She would pay!

For Robin, it was business as usual. "Okay." He adjusted his eye mask and tapped at the bill board "Just who are these guys?"

All the response he got was a fidgety looking team.

"Right" It wasn't like he expected an actual answer anyway. "Let's go over what we do know. Raven, can I get a confirmation on the nature of these three guys?"

"They're Otherworlder /scum/ alright." Raven dead panned with more hatefulness to her voice that usual. "Every last one of them."

Everyone turned and stared for a moment, was that zeal or just plain bitterness coming from Raven?

Shrugging it off, Robin continued "Alright, since we at least got that covered we know were to look. I'll contact the Justice League and see if I can talk to Kurtis Stryker again and show him the sketches. He's hard to reach but right now he's our best source of info on the Otherworlders. For now we'll have to second guess what they're up to and be in the place they're going to strike before they do. I doubt that they were all in cahoots with the Hive Five but that's not something we can discard just because we found them fighting each other. The fact that they're starting to mingle with our local villain population speaks of all kinds of problems."

"Our main priority right now is to find out what they want. If they've moved to ransacking museums then that means they're not fighting people at random in the city. This is good, since it will involve less civilian casualties, but it could also mean the start of something far more problematic. Whatever their intent is, it can't be anything good."

"Patrolling is our safest bet for now, but we're going to split off in pairs so they can't all gang up on us. Cy and BB you'll be covering East Jump City, Raven and Starfire you take care of the other half. I'll be trying to talk to Stryker from here and will coordinate you if I find anything from the tower."

"There's no time to waste, Titans, move out!"

After their briefing was over, the Titans rose from their seat and prepared to fly out of the Tower, staring their protocols first before beginning their missions. While they were getting in position Beast Boy was heard whispering in high pitched tones furiously to Cyborg.

"You didn't tell him! Why didn't you tell him!"

"I was trying to but he didn't give me a chance to talk!"

"Tell what to whom?" Robin overheard their argument and slid next to them as silently as a shadow, making the two scream.

Cyborg just had to spill the beans then; he and Beast Boy tripped all over themselves trying to explain what happened a few days ago in what could only be described as machine gun language.

Irritated at their antics, Robin got them to slow down so he could understand what happened.

"And yeah..the two guys that were breakdancing tackled us before we could trap Frost and Nightwolf."

Robin knew that the Otherworlders could get quite quirky, but this was too much.

"Breakdancing? Seriously?"

He couldn't deal with punishing the two at that precise moment; there were far more important things to deal with. In a sense, it almost helped since it gave Robin new insight of what the Otherworlders were doing.

The Titan leader looked to his board and circled the mug shot of the hooded masked man, tapping at it with his pen as he looked to the rest of his team "Is this one of them?"

Cyborg, Beast Boy and Starfire asserted with their heads, although Raven still looked very distracted.

"If they were twins then why there was only one of them at the museum?" The acrobat rubbed his temples in frustration, feeling a headache settling in. "None of this makes any sense. Just when I think I can find some logic or reason from the Otherworlders they start.. dancing at clubs!" He weakly whacked the billboard next to him, turning to the rest of his team.

"Star, Rae, you were there too. Did anything else happen?"

Starfire opened her mouth to speak, a hand already raised to her face to loudly proclaim her side of the story. She was however, deftly cut off by Raven's cold response.

"No."

The Tamarenean puffed her cheeks keeping her response from leaving her mouth. Instantly, Starfire knew why the empath had done that. What was she going to tell Robin? That she had found Frost and Raven dancing? That they were about to kiss? Or perhaps that she and Raven had allowed the Otherworlder group to escape because the mystic Titan was now in a relationship with the Otherwolder leader.

Starfire deflated and lowered her hand; there was nothing she could do.

"Are you sure?" Robin pressed on, sensing that something was wrong. "Raven, I'm not mad or anything. If there's anything that you saw back there it could it could help us out immensely."

"I said, nothing –happened-." Everyone could swear that the temperature in the room decreased a few dozen degrees after Raven's response.

A good detective knew when to back off to prevent aggravating a potential witness, Robin knew this perfectly well. He had now found a clue that something else was going on aside from a simple invasion. Raven was /lying/ to him, but there had to be a reason for her to do that.

He dared not think he had a mole in his group, but if he did he would rather not risk a huge disaster by exposing her publicly. The best way to uncover a mole was to pretend to follow their game in order to gather information from them instead.

The rest of the team looked at Robin and Raven as they tried to stare each other down, neither of them willing to give in first. For a moment they feared that they would come to blows until their leader finally retracted his unspoken challenge, knowing better than to get in an argument in front of the team.  
"Fine." Robin said trying to not glare too much. "We're sticking to the original plan; you all have your orders. Titans, dismissed!"

The acrobat's cape whirled in the air as he took an abrupt turn away from his team and headed towards the main panel. Beast Boy and Cyborg exchanged relieved comments and compliments for having avoided any kind of punishment before heading off.

Cautiously, Starfire approached her designated teammate who didn't say anything; it wasn't until they were well away from the tower, flying out in direction of the city, that Raven stopped abruptly in mid air, levitating with the ocean floor far below them.

"I need to talk to Frost." The empath looked behind her to stare at the wide vibrant emerald eyes of her alien friend. They were worried, as they had been ever since the problem with the Otherworlders started.

Starfire nodded. "I understand friend Raven. You are worried for her are you not?"

"Yes." Raven admitted without revealing that she was in fact worried about what she was going to do to Frost when she found her. If she found out that Frost was trying to rob the museum there would be hell to pay; demi-deity or not, Frost was going down.

"Go to your lover then, my friend, and see if all is well."

Raven flinched at Starfire's choice of words, a spark of dark energy flying out from her temple. "Right." The sorceress glanced down to her belt reaching for her communicator. "I think Robin is on to us, I can't afford to have him track me down with this thing. If he finds out I was at the harbor again..." Raven stopped abruptly when Starfire snatched the radio from her hand, looking up at her with disbelief.

"I will hold this for you Raven, he shall be none the wiser."

"Starfire.." The girl whispered. "I can't ask you to do this for me."

In response the alien princess merely smiled kindly and shook her head. "It is well worth the risk Raven. Should you succeed in swaying her we can prevent a much bigger unnecessary conflict. These Otherwolders have suffered much already in their world, what they need now is understanding that only we can provide. Give them the love that was denied from them in their dimension."

Starfire's optimistic ideals were so infectious; even one as gloomy as Raven found it difficult to disagree. She was convinced despite the fact she would normally scoff at the notion that love could solve anything.

With her resolve steeled by the encouraging words of her friend, Raven nodded and began to float away.

"Thank you, Starfire."

"Please tell her I said hello!" Said the princess, waving.

###################################################

"Please tell me that didn't just happen."

Back at the Konqueror's lair, they were busy licking their wounds. Frost was flumped down on a sofa with her face buried on her palms.

"Then what would you like me to tell you?" Jade called tauntingly as she paced about the room looking at the carnage that the Hive Five had brought upon the once mighty Konquerors. Noob Saibot was collapsed in a corner, clearly unconscious even if his eyes were open. Sektor was seated on a chair next to the laptop table with Nightwolf by his side as the shaman attempted to remove the Electromagnetic Disruptor that Gizmo had attached to the cyborg's back with what little technological knowledge he had. This meant he was trying to pry it off with an energy knife, but every time he poked at it the device produced an electric shock that harmed Sektor even more.

Frost looked up at Jade with fury in her cold blue eyes but found no words to express her hatred; her ego had taken a huge blow and she wasn't handling it very well. She looked down again trying to figure out how that had happened.

"We're the strongest in this whole realm, you said." Jade continued; not about to let Frost get off that easy. "Naught but worms compared to the likes of us, you said. Does this appear to be work of worms, Frost?"

"Okay! It wasn't that bad!" The kunoichi attempted to argue.

"Not that bad? Look at what they did to Sektor!" Speaking as if she cared what happened to the killer android, Jade motioned to the cyborg who kept getting electrocuted by the zapper. In one such instance, his arms started swinging in circles and he yelled in a high pitched voice.

"TOASTY! TOASTY! TOASTY!"

Nightwolf brought a swift end to that by smacking Sektor on the back of the head, making the cybernetic ninja rub the place where he was struck. "I don't know why I keep saying that."

Frost was the type of person that would never admit to be in the wrong; she scowled fiercely at Jade. "I was doing just fine! If you idiots hadn't gotten your asses kicked so soon then I could have taken out that stupid girl with the pink hair! All you needed to do was hold them back a little and you couldn't even help me out on that!"

"Oh! And I suppose rushing blindly into battle without any regard to what is happening around is your idea of helping? I saw how you jumped clear over Baraka and the other fiend to go for their girl instead of staying with the group. You were just trying to hog all the glory!"

"So now you need me to baby sit your ass? I thought you were a skilled kombatant, Jade. I ain't gonna be fighting no battles for you."

"As if I would ever need the assistance of an incompetent child such as yourself. Do not test me girl, lest you truly anger me!"

Frost jumped off the sofa, serrated daggers extended, causing Jade to summon her chi powered bo staff. "You wanna jump off woman! Let's go!"

"ENOUGH!"

Jade and Frost felt overpoweringly strong hands pushing them apart sending them each almost flying to opposite sides of the room. Nightwolf had gotten between the two and had separated them.

"This is exactly the reason why we lost! Our arrogance blinded us into thinking that we could best our foes with sheer strength alone when they clearly had the tactical advantage. Never forget the teachings of the tournament; it is not about fighting hard or fast, it is about fighting smart!"

Nightwolf paused to look at Jade and Frost in turn, making sure that they hadn't gotten back up to attack each other. "If we are to survive in this place we must learn to work together. That includes not fighting amongst ourselves."

Frost sat up and rubbed her head, sure she was arrogant enough that she will never admit a mistake, but that didn't mean she was stupid. She understood the power of strategy even if she herself didn't apply it.

"Nighty's right, we gotta rely on each others' strengths and abilities like the Titans do, otherwise this is just gonna keep happening. It ain't like we're fighting one on one battles like we did at the tournament."

Jade agreed and got up as still looking quite angry despite her new understanding.

She averted her eyes, trying to not look at Frost who was beginning to infuriate her with her cocky attitude. It was bad enough that Nightwolf, Saibot and even Sektor considered her the leader but now she was trying to rub it in.

Exhaling as she tried to calm down, the woman suddenly felt a sharp tingling sensation of something drawing near. "Did you feel that?" She asked out loud, emerald eyes growing wide with alert.

"I did." Responded Nightwolf, who also started looking around. "Something has gotten past the barrier."

"Aw crap." Frost had sensed it too, and recognized the signature due to her being in close proximity with it before.

The floor shimmered with dark energy as the image of a black bird rose from the ground between the trio of kombatants. Extending its wings, the large bird made itself room before curling in on itself transforming into a hooded figure.

"Ravy!" The ice kunoichi exclaimed at the sudden appearance of her mystic girlfriend, sounding elated to see her. She walked towards the hooded figure with arms extended to embrace her only to be slapped right in the mouth.

"Ow! What the hell?"

"You lied to me!"

Raven just about flung herself at Frost, her hands reaching towards the girl as if to strangle her, the Titan's entire body covered in dark energy.  
Frost was much faster than Raven, but the shock of her girlfriend attacking her unexpectedly prevented her from tapping into her ninja skills. She stood frozen in place as Raven lunged at her to choke her with her bare hands.

Regardless of personal feelings, Jade was and always would be a body guard. In a movement that had been ingrained in her over centuries, she instinctively got behind Raven and placed her bo staff around her neck to restrain her.

Jade may not like Frost, but she was still their leader and if there was one thing body guards did well it was defend the leadership.

Raven reached for the bo staff trying to concentrate and shift through it, however the grip was tight and was pushing hard on her trachea preventing her from breathing. No air meant no chanting and no chanting meant not powers.

"Stop! Let her go!" The spiky haired kunoichi demanded, forcing Jade to release the mystic Titan. Raven grasped her throat and wheezed in air finding that she couldn't continue attacking Frost until she caught her breath.

"Raven, what is going?" Frost attempted to approach the Titan, but was forced back with a vicious glare.

"Why were you at the museum?" She asked, eyes narrowing disappointingly "And don't you dare lie to me. I will read your mind if I need to, Frost."

Caught in a bad position Frost knew perfectly well that there's nothing more dangerous in the universe than a pissed off girlfriend, she should know having been in Raven's position before. She gave Nightwolf a look, running out of ideas on what to do, but the shaman was hardly the person to ask about relationships and he looked the other way.

"Okay, fine, you got me." The assassin sighed in defeat "I was going to rob the place."

Raven held very still for a moment, darkness beginning to envelop her slowly as she stood there looking at Frost. Her cloak looked like it was coming alive, growing tendrils of darkness around the edge that began to writhe around like tentacles. She started to grow taller, surpassing everyone in the room. Even more horrifying, her eyes were now glowing red and there were not two of them anymore, but four.

Not even Jade was bold enough to try and intervene on that one, Frost was on her own, Nightwolf even moved out of the way and started dragging Sektor, not about to leave the poor helpless cyborg anywhere near that monstrosity. No matter his past crimes he didn't deserve the punishment Frost was about to receive.

"Wait-wait-wait! Listen!" Frost suddenly felt very small, smaller than she had ever felt before. She almost went down to her knees as she raised her hands up to her face, waving them desperately in an attempt to get Raven's attention. "I had a good reason to! I was just going to get one thing that was going to help me protect this realm, honest!"

"/EXPLAIN/ /NOW/" Raven's voice came distorted, as if there were numerous Ravens speaking at the same time. It also sounded deeper, warped by darkness, evil… dangerous.

"Have you ever heard of the Eye of Solomon? It's a talisman that prevents scrying. Noob Saibot and I came up with a plan to reverse its enchantments and use it to apprehend any criminals we found by scrying them instead! You can read my mind if you don't believe me!"

The truth that was that Raven was bluffing about mind reading; it was something that she very rarely did even against villains. It was something far too personal to use freely. It was dangerous even, to make a direct link from her mind to others; she could never know what sort of insanity was going inside the people the Titan's fought. She was certain that she would not survive a trip inside Control Freak's brain for example, however brief it was.

A couple of factors were different this time around though, for starters Frost had given her permission, it'd be hard for her to hide her thoughts now that she was projecting them, secondly she was currently in her demon form which shielded her own mind, and lastly but not least, she was ticked off, to hell with privacy.

Raven narrowed her eyes, all four of them, and took a dive inside Frost's mind.

Silence took hold of the Konqueror's lair; Jade, Nightwolf and even Sektor stood there just watching the two girls stare at each other. They knew the truth, that while Frost had indeed planned to use the eye of Solomon with Saibot to take down the evil doers of Jump City, she was only doing it to take out the competition.

Raven probed Frost's mind and saw this easily, but she went beyond doing simply just that and went past the girl's surface thoughts. Feeling curious, Raven dived deep into Frost's subconscious to explore her past taking this opportunity to perhaps find out why Frost of all people counteracted her powers.

She saw her fighting numerous people, monsters, demons, sorcerers and blue ninjas just as her. She saw her fighting in the steppes of a great pyramid against a blond woman in military uniform. Raven went deeper, seeing her training in the Lin Kuei temple preparing to stop the Deadly Alliance, looking up to a man she heard her call Sifu Sub-Zero with respect she though Frost was incapable of.

Raven knew all this already from overhearing Stryker and went deeper still, going back as far as Frost's childhood. There she saw a scared little girl, frustrated by the role society was forcing down her throat. She was told to be meek, demure and feminine yet because of this she was constantly harassed by men when walking out in the street, never feeling safe.

It wasn't until she was finally cornered and forced to fight back that she truly felt like she was in control of her life. Frost had learned from a very tender age that in order to be respected she needed to harm others to make them understand she was not one to be trifled with.

Raven saw an image of the same little girl, battered, bruised, bloodied, tired and more importantly, happy. The girl smiled a blood covered smile as she laughed standing in the center of a group of fallen, bleeding men who had just been stabbed to death. The girl had a crimson coated kitchen knife in her hand.

The sorceress pulled out of Frost's mind making them both gasp as their spiritual link was severed. Raven seemed satisfied from what she saw and began to shrink.

Starfire was right, Frost wasn't evil, she simply didn't know how to be good because kindness was never taught to her. How could she emulate an emotion she wasn't even aware existed?

Raven understood her; pitied her. At least in the sorceress' case she had been taught that the demonic ways of her father Trigon where wrong. Frost never had such a luxury. If Raven allowed Frost to continue in her destructive path, she would not only be failing Frost, she would be failing herself as well.

"That was a very foolish thing you did, Frost. Maybe your heart was in the right place, but stealing is still wrong and you can't go about taking anything you want simply because you can. The eye of Solomon does not belong to you."

Frost endured the chastising without complaint this time around, she was just glad that Raven hadn't bitten her head off. "Sorry." The girl straightened up finding her inner courage. "But I ain't about to ask for petty permission to defend people. That's not how we did things in our realm. We're warriors by nature, we save lives through combat prowess, not by negotiating. If we feel we must do something to ensure the safety of others we'll do it first and ask permission later. No one asked us if we wanted to have a Mortal Kombat tournament, that decision had been made for us thousands of millennia before we were even born."

Raven opened her mouth to speak, Frost interrupted her again. "If we had waited, those guys would have taken the eye of Solomon for themselves, and I'm pretty sure their intentions were a wee bit less noble than mine."

Sighing, Raven knew that for once Frost's rash acting had been for the best. She still had a long way to go to truly steer away from the violent path she had taken, but at least she was making progress.

"Just don't do that again, please. If you really want help tracking people I could help you, all you need to do is ask. You don't need to do things for on your own anymore."

Frost passed a hand through her hair, allowing herself to smile at Raven's worried tone, at least she didn't sound angry anymore. "Okay, heh, I guess I forgot I had a sexy sorceress girlfriend that could help me out with that kinda stuff now."

Raven shook her head and lowered her hood to get a better look at Frost. "You never take anything seriously do you?"

The ninja gave a cheeky smile and a light shrug of her shoulders as she extended her arms, inviting Raven in. "Sure I do, you wanna kiss and make up?"

Unexpectedly, Raven jumped into Frost's arms hugging her tightly surprising near everyone, for a moment even the kunoichi thought she was going to get attacked again.

Her fear was dispelled as the mystic shuddered in her arms, burying her face on Frost's neck. The ninja felt cool to the touch, it was a refreshing sensation, calming her from her previous fit of anger. Smiling still, Frost reached for Raven's back and began to rub her gently, resting her chin on her hair to enjoy its softness and nice smell.

The magician girl held the hug for quite a long time, breaking away only to lift her gaze up to Frost and lock eyes with her, staring at those bright endless pools of brilliant blue that intrigued her so much. Hers where so different than her own placid purple, they were so full of life and passion.

She wanted the passion that had been denied to her for so long. Raven realized that this experience was as revitalizing for her as it was for the ninja.

If Starfire wanted Raven to teach Frost how to love, she would have to experience it first, they would have to learn together.

Raven boldly moved up to press her lips against Frost's, the ninja was a fair bit taller than the empath which meant she had to arch up slightly if she wished to touch Frost's lips. A position that the kunoichi used to assume the dominant role and grasp Raven by the small of her back, bending her over slightly forcing the sorceress to wrap her slender arms around her assassin lover.

The two girls continued kissing softly for a while; the only sounds heard in the whole warehouse were their breathless sighs as they paused momentarily to catch their breath before resuming their caresses.

As perfect as the scene was, when Raven began moaning due to Frost's hand threatening to slide inside her leotard and touch the moisture building between her legs, Jade, Nightwolf and even Sektor all cleared their throat at the same time letting them know they were not alone and that the others weren't going to vacate the room just for their sake.

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It was night in Jump City and Frost oversaw the luminescent landscape from atop a tall building, her spiky blue hair billowing with the cool night breeze.

Raven had kept her promise of helping Frost eliminate powerful criminals and she now had a lead on a remarkably powerful rogue who could prove bothersome in the future. With them out of the picture, Frost was ensuring fiascoes like the one with the Hive Five would not repeat themselves.

Though she had offered, the task of fully convincing Raven hadn't been easy. Rightfully so, the mystic speculated that Frost would not be able to control her twisted, violent urges to gruesomely kill any criminal Raven helped her find.

After much negotiation, which involved a lot of furiously passionate sex, the ninja managed to sway Raven to her cause so she would assist her, if only just this once.

Raven still doubted Frost's true motives as the girl had proven to be completely unpredictable. However, there would be no better chance to test if the ninja was truly considering changing her ways or she was only playing with Raven's heartstrings. Besides, if Frost proved to be uncontrollable and flew off the deep end by killing someone, she would be taking a criminal's life and not an innocent. It would be regrettable, but it was an acceptable risk.

Raven could be ruthless too, if she really needed to be; it was probably one of the many reasons why Frost liked her.

Since she had been the recipient of Hive Five attacks in the past, Raven knew how to fix damaged they had made and graciously helped Sektor get rid of the zapper on his back as well as revitalized Noob Saibot by administrating a large dose of dark energy to his body.

Once the Konquerors were back in shape, Raven got together with the shadow wraith and the Apache shaman in order to create a scrying spell that would far surpass the power of the Eye of Solomon.

Raven provided her empathic powers to scour the city looking for the right emotion, Nightwolf summoned the wind spirits to carry their enchantment to all the corners of Jump City, and lastly, Noob Saibot provided the raw magical energy required to hold such a spell. With their combined powers they achieved what all the Titans with their extensive amount of resources couldn't.

They found Red X's hiding spot.

This would be particularly sweet for Frost. Raven had informed her that Red X was a notorious criminal that had always been a top priority for Robin. Tonight she would be striking down a potential rival and annoy the Titan leader with one shot; she couldn't have asked for a better gift.

Well, except perhaps for Raven dressed in nothing but the Dragon Medallion.

As she surveyed the scene, hearing idle chatter of her allies through her radio as they got into position; Raven appeared behind Frost in her usual enigmatic way.

"Back to check up on me one more time, babe?" The kunoichi smirked to herself but didn't bother looking back at Raven.

"I have to make sure." The mystic took a deep breath. "Please, promise me again you won't kill him."

"Relax, most people don't need both their lungs, I'm sure he'll be okay if I rip out just one."

"Frost!" The girl said in warning, one of the things that Raven had never enjoyed was dark or toilet humor, she couldn't tolerate from Beast Boy nor could she from Frost.

The kunoichi giggled and looked over her shoulder, waving her hand slightly. "I'm just kidding! Don't worry, we won't touch a hair of his pretty little head and your beloved leader will get his precious armor back. Trust me on this toots, I'm an assassin, I'm all about seeing that the job gets done."

Raven wanted to remind Frost that according to her background she was a 'rookie' assassin which made quite a bit of difference, but she didn't feel like arguing. She was exhausted after the enchantment, and more importantly her loins still ached after all the 'negotiating' she had done with Frost. The empath was in dire need of meditation to restore her powers... and perhaps some lotion.

"Very well, I wish I could stay here and help but I must get back to the Tower."

"Don't sweat it. Me and my guys got this covered."

Shaking her head at Frost's usual confidence, Raven turned to leave, though she did give one last look at the ice ninja. "By the way, I'm sorry about slapping you earlier."

Frost winked at the girl. "It's okay, I kinda liked it. Got me all hot and bothered."

Raven almost chocked at the response, her face feeling warm, and she instinctively brought her hands up to her cheeks to hide it. Frost felt like teasing her more about it but overheard Sektor's message that the target had been sighted.

"Gotta go sugar! Love ya!" The ninja ran off the edge of the building and jumped off leaving Raven staring at the space where she once was.

"….love you too." Whispered Raven.

Stealing the Red X suit had been a mixed blessing for the criminal who now wore it. The suit had granted him incredible power, allowing him to perform heists that he could only have dreamed of before. However, the suit's fuel, Xenothium, was a rare luxury to come by and he found that most of his ill gotten revenue went towards powering his suit. There were times where he would attempt robberies simply to get more of the stuff.

It was also highly radioactive, which meant he had to forsake his cozy lair for a more spacious area where he could hoard the material without putting himself at risk of getting skin cancer. He had no intention of cutting his criminal career short just because of a few miscalculations.

As such he had to move to an underground abandoned parking lot and make his head quarters there. It was out of the way, it was secluded and it was quite spacious; meaning he could easily stuff large piles of Xenothium without anyone even being aware of the radiation it gave off.

This came with a price of course; there was no way Red X could claim the entire parking lot for his own. There were no actual gates barring entrance meaning anyone could just walk in, and indeed they did. Red X had to share his lair with the many homeless people that chose to make the underground their home. They of course had no idea somewhere in the darkest corner of the place they called home resided one of the most notorious villains of Jump City, but despite the relative safety Red X found the lack of privacy incredibly irritating.

Also there was no real space to make a proper living, so the thief lived in a cramped up area with a corner reserved for Xenothium and a corner for himself where he slept on a sleeping bag.

For all his accumulated riches, Red X lived like a hobo.

It did have the benefit that Robin never considered searching there, reasoning that some so wealthy could get a better hide out.

In order to perform a successful raid on Red X's secret base, anyone would need to know all this information as it was critical to make any would be raider's presence unknown lest they drew attention from any homeless people. The Konquerors' already had this advantage since the spell Raven, Saibot and Nightwolf had performed gave them all the knowledge they needed of where Red X hid.

As the professional thief made his way to his lair after another successful Xenothium run, he felt a presence lurking in the shadows, tailing him towards his domain.

The young man turned and scanned the silent, dark corners of the abandoned parking lot, seeing nothing, but definitely feeling something.

"I know you're out there, show yourself!" His demand was met with even more unnerving silence. Red X could run, but if he did so he would only lead whoever was tailing him deeper into his quarters. If they were here following him they either already had a trap set for him, or they just needed that extra incentive from them to fully corner him.

Red X stood his ground and stared into the darkness, unwilling to continue until whoever was following revealed their presence.

There was no response for a long time, letting Red X simply stare into the abyss with his mind telling him that it could have perhaps been a rat that he heard. The thief knew better than to convince himself to ignore danger like that; he wouldn't move until he got a clear answer. Better to waste a few hours staring into the dark than turn around and get strangled.

His patience paid off. As he scanned the area his eyes caught movement from behind a pillar seeing a vague humanoid figure moving there.

Red X's body tensed as he watched a dark hooded man emerge from the shadows as if he had been born there. The man's eyes were completely white and he stared with a dead gaze at the thief while walking very casually towards him, almost as if he was walking through the park.

"Red X, I presume?" Called the man standing a few meters away, not close enough to appear threatening, but not far enough that Red X would get a big lead on him if he tried to make a run for it.

"Who wants to know?" The thief considered his options briefly. This man appeared dangerous, but when you are a professional criminal meeting a shadowy stranger it could either be a close call with an assassin or a job opportunity. Red X stood still and waited for a response. What would it be tonight? Business or something else..?

"Your executioner." The shadowy man responded briskly, still walking towards the thief.

Something else it was then. Red X started hoping backwards knowing better than to attack a foe head on without any idea of what they were capable of. The man seemed content with walking towards him for now, forcing him to keep his distance by walking back until he ran out of room.

Red X sent a few flying X shaped shurikens at the man, who merely smacked them aside in mid air with his forearm, not even wincing after deflecting a blade with no apparent protective gear.

Extending a hand towards Red X, the man controlled the very shadows around him and sent a copy of himself running towards the thief. The shadow lept at Red X with a flying kick towards his face, forcing the thief to get out of the way with a roll. When the shadow flew right past him it collided against one of the support beams of the parking lot, splitting the stone column in half as if it were nothing. The entire structure trembled as it began to crumble under its own weight. Red X took his eyes away from the destruction just in time to see the dark hooded man send another shadow running at him. Just as before, Red X dodged it by sliding sideways and the shadow ran past him, punching at another column to shatter it as well.

Red X quickly realized that the man was trying to make the ceiling cave in on him and dashed to the left going into a corridor that led to another zone of the parking lot, using the collapsing ceiling to block any attempt at pursuit.

The man crossed his arms and chuckled even if it looked like his prey had escaped. He reached under his hood to activate his communicator.

"Saibot here; he's heading in your direction."

Red X dashed with blurring speed down the corridor, his mind going almost as fast as his legs. A million thoughts passed through his mind as he tried to deduce who that man was and why he wanted him dead.

He was confident that his deposit of Xenothium was safely hidden; his main priority right now was to escape.

As he went around a corner he was greeted by a burst of flame, the searing heat forcing him back as he covered his face with his arms.

Two figures this time; a red cyborg and a woman clad in only a green top and a loincloth blocked his way. The cybernetic assassin extended his arms towards him showing he had flamethrowers strapped to his forearms and shot another blast at Red X.

He had no other choice but to turn and run, not daring another confrontation with unknown foes. While he was unsure of his ability to overpower such opponents he was more than confident about outrunning them.

"He's getting away! After him!" The robot yelled to his companion as Red X made a run for it, making a mad dash for the closest exit out of the parking lot. For a moment it looked like he could make it if he just kept that speed.

"Don't let him jump! Jade!" Red X heard the sound of a bladed object spinning towards him and ducked to see a circlet chakram fly past him, barely avoiding getting a new haircut.

The circlet was thrown at such an angle that it started bouncing on the walls rapidly right in front of the thief threatening to slice him if he kept running. Red X knew that if he could time it just right he could sneak past it. That however would take a moment to calculate and he heard another object being thrown at him. A quick look over his shoulder revealed that this was a missile most likely shot at him by the robot.

With no time to think, the thief acted and ran to the side sneaking into a corridor that lead further into the parking lot. The missile shot at him by the cybernetic assassin struck the chakram that was barring his way, exploding and thus bringing a good chunk of debris down to seal that exit.

Jade had to admit that was quite skillful on the part of her team mate and congratulated him as they continued pursuing Red X. "A masterful shot Sektor."

"Yet easy for one trained as a Lin Kuei." The cyborg replied smugly and reached for his forearm communicator. "Sektor here, in pursuit of the target, he is heading in your direction!"

Red X entered a secluded crossroads that split into three different directions. Turning to his left in an attempt to lose his pursuers, Red X entered an unknown corridor just trying to pick a random route to put as much distance between him and the people following him.

There was a flash of green and a sensation of pain as Red X was rammed by something solid, hitting him right in across the skull mask he wore to send him tumbling back to the center of the crossroads. As he landed on his rear, his eyes cleared and he looked forward to see what was it that hit him. The thief furrowed his eyebrows when he saw, to his confusion, a muscled man approaching him dressed in an Apache get-up who had clearly just elbow smashed him right in the face.

Red X got back to his feet and realized that he was surrounded, with the cyborg and the woman in green blocking the path from the way he had come from, and the dark clad man suddenly appearing on his right side. Although he was panicking, Red X couldn't help but laugh at the group that gathered there to trap him.

"Okay, okay, so we have a robot, an Amazon, a ninja and an Indian. Are we missing anyone?"

Red X felt a cold gust of wind on the ceiling and looked up to see ice accumulating right over him. The frozen water dripped down taking the shape of a young woman with spiky blue hair.

"Ah, of course, the plucky hipster girl that the audience can identify with. I take it you're the comic relief?"

He barely dodged an ice kunai tossed at him, the serrated teeth of the weapon scratching the side of his mask.

"Actually, I'm the leader." Frost said adjusting her own bandit mask as she exhaled plumes of cold breath. "And you're dead meat, chump."

"Who are you people anyway? What do you want with me?"

"That armor you got on, it ain't yours ya know. And stealing is wrong." Frost tittered as she said those words sounding cynical. The girl began to circle around Red X casually, her arms relaxed as if she were addressing an old friend. "As for who we are, you can just call us the Konquerors."

"I didn't know the Titans employed mercenaries now." Red X got into a fighting stance now that retreat was no longer an option.

"Well, ya know the Titans." The girl continued to giggle, passing a hand through her spiked up hair to compose it as she too assumed a light Tong Bei Quan stance. "Somebody's gotta be there to clean up their messes."

Frost charged, tired of talking and itching to spill blood. Her palm was extended towards Red X in an attempt to grab him by the face and drive him up back to a wall where she could punch him to her heart's content.

The thief didn't want to have the girl with the cold aura anywhere near him, and summoned buzzaws from his gloves, taking wild swings on a wide arch to keep the frenzied kunoichi away.

Frost caught on before over committing herself to the attack and skidded to a stop, backing away from the saws just barely. Knowing the nature of Red X's weapons however, gave her an edge in the fight and she blew a curtain of cold air right between them.

When Red X stepped in to take another swing at her, his saws came into contact with the curtain and froze solid.

"Hahaha! SUCKER!" Frost laughed and swung a kick directly at the thief's arms, shattering the frozen blades as well as knocking his arms out of the way. Opening him up for an attack. Frost used that same leg to kick him on the side of the head, breaking a good chunk of his mask in the process.

The thief held his bleeding temple and peered at Frost with shock in his eyes. "I don't say this often, but you're really good. Are you by any chance-"

"NO!" Frost screamed guessing what Red X was about to say. "I'm not related to Robin okay! I'm not his sister, we didn't train under the same master, I'm not his evil twin, I didn't even know he existed until recently! So y'all better shut the hell up and quit that mess about us being related CUZ I DON'T EVEN KNOW THE GUY!"

The girl breathed in and out hard with cold air flowing out from her mask as she stared at Red X.

"Actually, I was going to ask if you practiced Tong Bei Quan."

Frost blinked and straightened up "Oh, right. Yes, yes I do."

Red X nodded, an awkward silence heard in the scene after Frost's little outrage.

"Although now that you mention it, I do see the resemblance with Robin."

"THAT'S IT! YOU'RE DEAD!"

Frost launched herself at Red X who now that he didn't have his saws had to rely on hand to hand skills in order to defend himself. The thief threw a punch right for Frost's face and struck her, but the ninja was so infuriated that she didn't care about blocking, all Frost wanted to do now was hurt Red X and hurt him bad.

Ignoring the pain that she felt on her cheek, Frost summoned her serrated ice daggers and stabbed the thief right on his left thigh, piercing through his peritoneal artery and crippling his leg. Screaming in pain as he limped back, Red X extended an arm, desperately trying to keep Frost at bay only to feel sharp pain as the ninja stabbed him through his bicep, tearing apart his ligaments and rendered his arm useless.

"That's what you get, ass wipe!"

The rest of the Konquerors approved of the battle and nodded to each other once their prey fell to his knees. Their first operation as a team had been a disaster, but now, not only had they redeemed themselves, but Frost had also proved herself an efficient leader; if perhaps a little overly aggressive.

Nightwolf's smile turned into a scowl suddenly, as he felt pressure on his chest, cursing when he realized the evil spirits within his body had been stirred by the sight of carnage. "Yes!" The shaman yelled raising a fist, his white eyes wide with excitement, forgetting the original intention of their mission as he yelled;

"FINISH HIM!"

The cry began a chain reaction that whipped through the rest of the Konquerors, awakening the primordial blood lust engraved upon them from participating in the Mortal Kombat tournament.

"FINISH HIM!"

Sektor yelled next, his priority protocols being overridden by the sorcery of the tournament.

"FINISH HIM!"

Noob Saibot's soulless nature got the better for him. The man known as Bi-Han knew of compassion and mercy when necessary; the wraith had no use for such things.

"FINISH HIM!"

Jade said lastly, knowing only that thieves such as Red X deserved death.

"FINISH HIM! FINISH HIM! FINISH HIM! FINISH HIM! FINISH HIM!"

Hearing the cries of her team calling for the death of Red X, Frost glanced down at the kneeling criminal currently soaked in his own blood.

Raven's words passed through her mind, the kunoichi remembering the promise she had made to the sorceress that she would take the villain alive. She knew what she needed to do, but the chanting from her team was drowning out the soothing sound of Raven's voice.

The girl grabbed Red X's neck, lifting him with one hand just to show off how strong she really was, and let the thief's legs dangle while she hoisted him up in the air, his head just above her own. Her eyebrows gave slight twitches as she stood there, unsure what to do. She had never doubted herself about performing a Fatality; she had never considered that it might be wrong somehow to take a life in such a brutal way.

"D-Damnit, I give up!" Red X struggled to say but it fell on deaf ears. Frost placed a hand on his chest which caused chills of fear to run through the thief knowing that if he didn't do something fast he would be killed.

"No! Please.. j-just.. you can't kill me! You have to turn me in!"

The girl scoffed, still hearing her team call for the thief's execution. "I ain't no hero, begging for mercy won't do you any good."

Red X felt the girl's palm growing cold and he started shaking, his one working arm reaching up to grasp at Frost's wrist in a futile attempt to get her to let go.

"Who are you!" The man asked, wanting to at least have the relief of knowing the name of his killer.

The girl smirked. "I'm Frost" She clenched that hand gripping at Red X's chest tightly. "I'm the coolest ninja ever."

The kunoichi's hand glowed with the cold chi shooting from her palm right through Red X's chest...

And freezing his heart.


	10. Winter Silver Hunter

Here it is! The long awaited (?) kontinuation of the story!

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Raven was a very lucid dreamer; she had to be, when your powers are affected by your emotions you can't afford to be easily startled, even by your own dreams. Both dreams and nightmares were a common occurrence for the sorceress, she led a very, for the lack of a better word, exciting lifestyle, with many of her daily experiences leaving lasting impressions that haunted her even in her dreams.

But she knew that they were just that, dreams, harmless images that could not touch her. No matter how horrifying our how beautiful, Raven knew they were just tricks of the mind, always remaining calm and stirring not in her sleep.

Except for tonight.

Raven hugged herself tightly, her cloak wrapped around her as best she could. There was a cold wind blowing, cutting through the thin fabric of her leotard to lick at her nearly unprotected grey skin. The sorceress shivered once she realized she was in the middle of a snowy field, her light ankle high shoes soaking wet already as were the edges of her cloak.

The feeling, while uncomfortable, wasn't life threatening which allowed Raven to study her surroundings as she tried to recall how she had come to be at such a place. The last thing that she remembered was going to sleep on her own bed then waking up in this frozen wasteland.

Movement drew Raven's attention causing the empath to turn in the direction where she saw a figure moving far away from her. A person was running down a steep snow covered hill, their movements were blurring fast, unhindered by the snow.

As the person dashed right past her, the sorceress managed to get a good look on them. She immediately recognized the blue ninja uniform and the signature spiked up hair.

It was Frost, she had a look of deep determination on her face as she continued running with demonic speed down the hill.

Raven called out for her, yelling her name as she extended a hand out to grasp her, only managing to fall face first on the snow when she tripped. She had no idea how in blazes Frost was able to move so fast in the snow, the ninja looked more like a deer running than a human, although once she remembered that Frost was an ice user perhaps it was only natural for the ninja to know how to move through snow without problem.

Grunting in annoyance, Raven picked herself up from her spot on the ground and began levitating as she followed the running figure of Frost, trailing her down the slope wondering where she was going in such a rush.

As she descended with Frost's back still towards her, Raven looked beyond to see a glimmering foreboding red portal. It swirled with dark energy which caused the sorceress to stop in mid air, the overpowering feeling of dread consuming every part of her body, as if something was screaming at her to stay as far away from the portal as possible.

It was too bad that Frost was heading directly for it.

Even before Raven could cry out, Frost recklessly jumped in and disappeared for view. Raven quickly threw caution to the wind and plunged into the portal herself if only to rescue Frost from her own stupidity.

As she emerged on the other side, she no longer felt cold, for she had been transported to a desolate arid canyon. The feeling of dread was much stronger there, wherever she was, and in her panic she frantically began looking for Frost hoping that she hadn't gotten herself killed.

Descending into the canyon through levitation, Raven saw the ninja girl still running away from her heading towards a cloud of dust that formed in the horizon. Raven scowled at Frost's erratic behavior and followed her.

As she flew, more portals began to open on the sides of the canyon bringing strange people who went to join Frost on her run. Some came out in groups of two or three; others actually ran down from the cliffs and into the canyon. Some of them carried archaic weapons like swords and axes, but most of them were unarmed.

Soon there was quite an amalgam of people; monsters, androids, ninjas, mutants, demons, knights, gangsters, undead, none of them seemed to have anything in common with the other save for the fact they were all running in the same direction while yelling. Raven soon lost sight of Frost as she merged into the stampede, the cloud of dust that was quickly forming around the mob and the increasing sense of doom that Raven continued to feel were not helping in the least.

The sorceress realized that these people were not simply running for no reason, the way that they yelled in anger, plus the incredible blood lusting emotions that she felt from all gathered there told Raven that they were charging.

Horror set in Raven's light purple eyes when she looked up to see another mob of people running in the opposite direction, about to collide with the army Frost was in. This was no mere skirmish that the sorceress was witnessing, this was an apocalyptic war. All their combined emotions would have a catastrophic effect on the fabric of reality as dozens of people who were all equally as strong as Frost did battle at the same time. It would tear the whole world, no, the whole galaxy asunder.

Raven had somehow been transported to the time and place where Frost's world ended; it was why she was feeling that sense of impending doom. If she stayed here for too long she would be consumed along with this dimension.

Gasping, Raven's concentration returned when the two armies clashed furiously, their powers brought into full light instantly as massive chi blasts exploded all around blowing large chunks of the canyon in the process. No sense of tactics were displayed by the two groups as each warrior fought individually, picking out an opposing fighter and attacking them recklessly, often shoving their allies out of the way in the process. Each strike given by any of them was powerful enough to pierce through the strongest steel, yet all of them endured them, eager to fight to the very end.

Panic began to set in on Raven but when she was pressured the only thing she could rely on was her hero training and thus acted out of instinct. She dived towards the orgy of violence without any regard for her own safety as a hero should, her plan was to push her way through the mass of soldiers, pry Frost right out of the thick of it and fly away with her to safety. She would figure out a way of escaping the reality she was stuck in later, her main priority was to save Frost at all costs!

First she would have to deal with the ninja's old friends though. Raven felt that she could easily phase through the crowd of people, avoiding all the conflict until she could find Frost. This worked well for a moment or two as she weaved her way through the battle until she felt a telekinetic force grab her and fling her sideways into the canyon's cliff.

Grunting as she felt her back collide against hard rock, Raven opened her eyes wide to look at her attacker. She frowned when she saw a man with a blindfold running at her with a katana in hand. The sorceress at first almost made the mistake of dismissing him as a blind fool, until she realized that if he had telekinetic powers he didn't really need to see.

Her reasoning came not a moment too soon; the blind samurai silently charged in at her gripping his blade with both hands giving a mighty thrust forward in an attempt to impale her. Raven became translucent as she shifted planning to simply go through the blade, but instinctively took a side step just to be on the safe side.

This ended up saving her as the katana somehow pierced her despite shifting through planes but only managed to cut her on the side due to her reflexive evasive maneuvers.

The sorceress gave a cry of pain as she held her bleeding side, chiding herself for thinking simple tactics as phasing would work against a Demi-God. She began to levitate away from the blind swordsman sending a wave of energy to envelope him; the swordsman however, mimicked the motion and also extended his palm out to Raven. Telekinetic power collided with dark energy as the two wrestled for dominance until Raven's concentration flickered for a moment giving the samurai the upper hand and the opportunity for him to toss her to the side again.

Raven fell on the ground and at the feet of another Demi-God like creature. This one wore a full green ninja suit and he stared down at the half demon girl with green silted eyes of curious hatred.

His ninja mask was apparently an illusion, for it disappeared to expose the green ninja's reptilian mouth as he tried to vomit acidic liquid down on Raven. She shifted down into the ground and emerged a few paces away from the ninja, avoiding getting her face melted off.

But only ended appearing directly in front the Samurai!

Turning around, Raven was caught flat footed when the swordsman rushed towards her again aiming to cleave her in two with his sword. Before he could do that an ice kunai was flung directly in front of him causing him to come to a full stop or get his head pierced.

Raven looked to her left and with great relief saw the familiar figure of Frost rushing in to save her. The girl fell upon the Samurai with cold fury, her ice daggers unfurled, she swung not at him first but at his sword trying to hook i with the teeth of her serrated daggers so she could get a clear opening. The two traded blows viciously, the swordsman trying to hit Frost's daggers as hard as he could in an attempt to shatter them, but the thick ice held strong causing the kunoichi to redouble her efforts.

"Wait..stop!" Raven pleaded suddenly when the speed of the fighters began to increase, their movements a blur of continued motion showing no sign stopping until one of them was dead. The half demon knew that if they continued that pace they would. "No! Frost! Don't!"

As she said those words Frost found the opening she was looking for, she parried an over head blow with her dagger arching the swordsman back before plunging her other serrated dagger deep into his stomach!

"NOO!" Raven cried out in horror when the Samurai spat blood and the kunoichi tore through his abdomen with her saw like dagger, ripping through his skin before doing a fatal blow by chopping him across his neck. The Samurai gurgled as he choked on his own blood and fell backwards. He was dead before he hit the floor.

Frost turned to look at Raven and flung at kunai at her, it flew over her shoulder and hit the green ninja behind her, piercing his arm. The ninja screeched in annoyance like an animal and looked at the two girls, Frost rushing towards Raven's side bouncing on the balls of her feet ready to continue fighting.

"Yeah! You want some of this too, Reptile!"

"Sssscrew you!" Came the hissing answer from Reptile as he turned invisible and sneaked back into the chaotic battle.

With the fight raging all around them, Raven and Frost found a moment of peace to look at one another. The ninja's blue eyes stared at the sorceress with relief but Raven was beyond frightened after what she just saw.

"You…you killed him."

"I had to! He was going to kill you if I didn't do something!"

Raven shook her head, feeling tears well up on the corner of her eyes, she had never seen anyone die before, let alone in such a horrifying manner. "You could have..you could have crippled him."

"Oh yeah, 'cause it's real easy to go for non lethal strikes against a super powerful Sword Master that shoots bullets with his mind like Kenshi, right?"

"You ain't in Kansas anymore, Raven. You're in my world now and here, it's kill or—AAAAARGGH!"

A fist /exploded/ out of Frost's chest covering Raven in the kunoichi's blood. Frost looked down horrified at a foreign hand sticking out from the gaping hole on her chest, only managing to collapse to her knees when the fist pulled back out of her body.

Raven fell down with her, trying to hold her, screaming her name in the process, but Frost's fierce blue eyes were already going cloudy. "Sh-Shit…freakin' ch-cheap shot." Even in her last moments Frost continued to be arrogant.

With tears pouring down her eyes, Raven held Frost's drying form on her arms feeling the other girl's body going limp. She could almost hear Robin now, berating her for freezing up in combat as the Titans had practiced time and time again what to do in emergency situations like that. Stop the bleeding at all costs and remove the victim from the area to safety.

All the training in the world could not have prepared her however, for seeing the strange girl she had grown to love get her lungs and heart pierced right before her eyes. The two girls locked eyes, with Frost regretfully looking up at the sorceress feeling her life extinguishing "Sorry..babe…I…I lo…."

Frost couldn't finish her sentence. She died in Raven's arms with her eyes still open. Indomitable, even in death.

The sorceress looked up seeing Frost's killer, a blond woman dressed in military fatigue. She wiped the blood of her fist and scoffed lightly at the scene before her, staring down mercilessly and with no emotion, as if it was a common day occurrence for her. "Target Eliminated."

With crippling fear still gripping Raven's body, she stared at the woman with the military uniform. She was standing right in front of her now, pointing her bloody fist at Raven's face. The sorceress felt chi energy gathering around the woman's hand as she prepared to blast her head off with a power strike, instincts screaming at the half demon girl to get out of the way.

But she was too tired, too sad, what was the point anyway? Everyone in this dimension was going to die in a few minutes anyway and without Frost…

Raven closed her eyes hearing the fighting grow more violent around her. Feeling incandescent energy explode out of the woman's fist to behead her the sorceress braced herself for the end..

And then she woke up.

Raven's eyes opened to stare up at the ceiling of her own room. She was levitating, dark energy spiraling all around her flinging anything that wasn't nailed down to the ground. The sorceress could hear her name being yelled on the other side of her door as someone pounded at it almost making it fall off its hinges.

"Raven! What's going on in there! We're coming in!" It was Cyborg, who smashed through her door with a shoulder charge and batted a desk coming his way with a heavy back hand. The android boy shoved his way through the maelstrom of dark energy and reached for the floating sorceress. "Raven!" He screamed again, forcing the magician out of her trance.

She flopped back on her bed and with her all the other things that were floating as well. Her room was a disaster now but at least she was awake and in control, for the most part.

"Dang yo." Cyborg breathed out when things went back to normal, Robin, who apparently slept with his uniform on, rushed past him to stand by Raven's bed side.

"Are you alright? The entire tower was shaking and I think you were screaming."

The sorceress had a hand on her chest trying to control her heart beat; it wasn't until she caught her breath that she spoke. "I was having a nightmare."

"Sheesh, I'd hate to see her when she sleep walks." Beast Boy giggled which earned him an elbow jab on the ribs courtesy of Cyborg.

Robin took a closer look, studying Raven's face and reached out with an ungloved hand to touch her cheek. The girl cringed at the contact and pulled back staring at Robin's outstretched finger, noticing that it was now wet. Her own hands went to her cheeks too and brushed her eyes feeling accumulated tears.

"Raven.." Robin whispered sounding worried.

"Dude, she was crying?" Beast Boy piped up "But Raven never cries."

"Yeah Beast Boy cries way more often than her." Nodded Cyborg.

"Yeah! I cry way more than—HEY!"

Although Cyborg and Beast Boy's interactions softened the atmosphere quite a bit, Robin continued to stare at Raven with narrowed eyes. He wasn't angry or anything, it wasn't like Raven had blown a chunk of the tower while she was asleep, but this was most unlike her. The girl had always prided herself about her self control; blowing up like that while she was sleeping was unexpected.

When it came to young heroes like Raven though, Robin knew he had to be careful and not jump to conclusions. Raven was powerful, but she was not the Grandmistress of Magic, she was young and relatively inexperienced, she could be having a moment due all the stress the invaders where putting on them, or maybe it was just hormones. For all Robin knew this could be the equivalent of wetting the bed.

"Hold up." Cyborg interrupted looking at his forearm panel. "I just got a blip, someone just breached our perimeter."

"It could be an Otherworlder, Titans, let's proceed with caution." The boy wonder turned to Raven "How are you feeling?"

"I'm fine." The girl gave a grunt and materialized her cloak around her as she stepped out of the bed. "Let's go."

Starfire got there first as she had been very silently watching her friend from the corner of the room. Like the others, she was confused as to why Raven had lost control of her powers in the middle of the night, though she could imagine that it could be because of 'relationship' problems. It was a good thing Tamareneans didn't have super hearing; otherwise she could have heard Raven screaming out Frost's name while asleep.

Since she hadn't been peering too closely, Starfire boldly flew down the tower's long hallways and out the front door wondering who would dare defile the sanctity of their tower. The Tamarenean felt a little more confident than the rest of her group did, the boys were coming out of the Tower armed to the teeth ready for the fight of their lives as they expected an Otherwolder attack. However, Starfire actually hoped it was the Otherwolders by now; she wanted to talk to Frost and get to know the girl that had stolen Raven's heart.

Smiling, Starfire opened the doors leading to the shore just as Cyborg turned the outside lights so any potential enemies couldn't ambush them in the darkness.

Strangely, there was no one to be found, Cyborg, Beast Boy and Robin all jumped out of the Tower frantically looking everywhere with weapons draw, Cyborg with his sonic canon, Robin with boomerang in hand and Beast Boy turned into a bear. Their paranoia was rewarded with nothing but the pleasant sound of waves crashing on the rocky shore.

"False alarm?" Beast Boy shifted back to his human self and scratched the back of his head.

Cyborg checked his forearm panel again. "No, the sensors definitely picked up something, unless sea gulls weigh over three hundred pounds, there ought to be someone around here."

"I see something!" Starfire, who by virtue of floating had a better a vintage point, flew towards something that caught her eye, the others following closely with Raven way back at the rear walking along slowly.

The alien girl descended and crouched down to stare curiously at a pile of clothing lying on the sandy ground.

"Starfire, don't touch it!" Robin yelled as the rest of the team sans Raven who was still taking her own sweet time to get there, crowded around the pile of black and red clothing.

"Damn kids, someone must be skinny dipping." Grumbled Cyborg.

"But if they weigh three hundred pounds how can they be skinny Cyborg?" Asked Starfire.

"It's a term for swimming in the nude, Star."

"Oh.."

Robin ignored the conversation going around him and squatted, eyes widening in surprise when he recognized the clothes for what they really where.

"The Red X suit…" He gasped and took a moment to examine it from afar to see if it was perhaps bobby trapped. Tentatively, very slowly, he brought his finger tips to the cloth and retracted his arm quickly.

"What is wrong? Did it sting you?" Starfire leaned in closer to inspect Robin, looking at him with concern.

"No, it.. it feels cold."

Expecting the sensation now, Robin grasped the black cloth and extended it across the sandy beach to get a better look. It was indeed the Red X suit, it had been torn in numerous places, the mask was half cracked and there were very noticeable dry blood spots. More importantly, there was a thick layer of ice covering most of the suit.

Robin didn't need to be a detective to know what that meant.

"Frost did this." Was his verdict.

Cyborg furrowed his one human eyebrow. "Why would she do something like that? I dunno mang, could it be possible that someone's trying to frame her? Ya know, take advantage of all the confusion with the Otherwolders and get away with some unfinished business they had with X."

Robin smiled up at Cyborg, this was the reason why he was second in command, he may not have Robin's deductive abilities but he was always looking at things from another angle. The Titan leader was glad to explain his reasoning behind this.

"See the tears on the suit here? That was done by a serrated dagger like the one Frost uses, it's different from straight edge blade because it causes more bleeding and it rips the ligaments apart when it pulls out, very messy. Then there's crack on the mask, you see the angle of the impact? That's in the shape of a heel, meaning that whoever kicked him there had to bring their leg up to face level and then hook it back with enough force to shatter a plastic alloy that is stronger than steel."

"Do you know of any other knife wielding, ice powered, martial artists with super strength?"

Cyborg crossed his arms looking convinced. Beast Boy and Starfire looked at each other, most of those things went right over their heads and they shrugged trusting in the judgment of their peers to lead them. However, Raven..

"Is he dead?"

Robin looked behind him noticing Raven's worried tone.

"The man that was wearing the Red X suit, is he dead?" The sorceress repeated herself.

Robin went back to inspect the suit cautiously, his detective training coming into work. "It's hard to tell. These tears here in the thigh and here in the bicep could be fatal if they struck an artery. Normally attacks to the limbs are meant to cripple, but Frost's daggers are designed to cause as much internal bleeding as possible, it's likely she was aiming to do that."

"There doesn't seem to be much blood though, the suit would have compressed the wound even if she tore through something. The kick to the side of the head definitely hurt but it doesn't look like she cracked his neck. Then there's the ice…" Robin sighed "There are too many variables, that's all I can deduce from just looking at the suit."

The boy wonder grimly realized the facts. "It's a coin toss, fifty fifty chance."

"You don't sound awfully concerned." Raven said coldly.

"I'm a little too preoccupied wondering why on earth would Frost go after Red X of all people and give us back the suit. No life is more precious than another, but if Frost is going after targets like X now, that means she's not attacking at random, and if she's plotting things now then I can second guess her."

"It is most joyful we have the Red X suit back nevertheless." Starfire tried to soften relations by keeping a positive outlook of the situation.

"Maybe she's trying to bribe us." Beast Boy suggested "You know how a cat will bring part of its hunt to its owner? Maybe it's like that."

"Just because you think like a cat half the time, it doesn't mean other people do BB." Said Cyborg.

As the group started talking amongst themselves, Raven turned to leave, heading back into the tower. She knew the truth behind all this and so far she did not like what she was seeing. If Frost had gone off the deep end and killed Red X like she promised she wouldn't do. If she had betrayed her trust yet again.

There would be hell to pay.

########################

"The goods have been delivered as instructed." Sektor teleported back inside the Konqueror's warehouse finding them all in a sour mood. Frost was stretched out on their ill gotten sofa looking exhausted while Jade and Nightwolf sat silently on opposite corners, deep in their own thoughts. Only Saibot looked to be his normal self, he was tapping away at their only laptop still scouring the net for any information he could find about the new dimension they were in.

"Thanks Sektor, take five." Said Frost wearily.

Sektor made a quick nod with his head, the tiniest amount of respect, just enough to signify that he was taking orders from Frost, and headed towards Saibot, the only one he really trusted amongst the Konquerors.

"Now what?" Frost said to no one in particular, although Jade heard her and responded.

"We should probably start preparing for battle; your sorceress will no doubt appear here any moment now infuriated. If we lay a trap for her then we might be able to subdue her before she can bring her full powers against us."

"We're not setting a trap for my girlfriend, alright?" The ninja said, not even trying to hide her irritation. Sitting up from the sofa, Frost's blue eyes focused in Jade's direction and she glared. "I'm trying to think of ways to smooth things out with her, not pick a fight. In fact…"

Frost fully stood up and spoke louder so that everyone could hear her. "Y'all need to clear out this place; I don't want you interfering with what's none of your business. Raven's my problem; you let me deal with her."

"This burden is not alone for you to bear, Frost." Nightwolf looked up from where he sat "The Titan may be your lover, but your relationship with her affects all of us. If she is to attack you then we will defend you."

"No, no you won't." Frost said coldly "I don't fight your fights and you damn well won't fight mine!"

"You are hypocrite, what do you think forming this team is then? What do you think helping me control my rage every day is? You are more than eager to fight other people's fights for them, but you won't let us repay the favor because of your petty pride. What in blazes are you trying to prove?"

Frost scowled at Nightwolf, it was difficult to get angry with the shaman since Frost knew him to only speak wisdom. Back when she was fighting against the Deadly Alliance, she had always been surprised how everyone was silent when the Apache spoke, even Lord Raiden held his peace and listened to Nightwolf's counsel.

She didn't know how he did it back then, since they never directly interacted and she was far too infantile to understand the truth of Nightwolf's words. Now that she was in the receiving end of one of his sermons though, she knew why even Gods shut up and listened when the shaman had something to say.

It both relieved and irritated Frost, she was glad but that she had him in her team.

But then again, she always was annoyed by wise guys like Nightwolf.

"I ain't trying to prove nothing!" She replied "I'm just trying to be more responsible, isn't what you wanted? Take care of my own problems?"

"A likely argument, if it were not for the fact that you are not the one that is at fault here."

Noob Saibot looked up abruptly, he had been tuning out the argument behind him to concentrate in his work and because of this he was the only one with enough sense of awareness to realize someone had gotten through the barrier that surrounded the Konqueror's lair.

"She comes.."

"Crap!" Frost actually jumped in place "Alright everyone, just be cool and leave this to me, okay?"

It was quite distressing for the Konquerors to realize how concerned they actually were about the situation with the two girls. Saibot and Sektor normally couldn't care less about juvenile drama such as that; however the powers of the girls were far too great to simply ignore. What would otherwise be a common teenager conflict could turn into the next Armageddon.

It was bad enough that they were both girls, the estrogen levels of this whole debacle were off the charts.

As she had done before, a figure that was Raven's namesake emerged from the floor to reveal the brooding cloak covered figured of the Titan's mystic. Deep violet eyes peered from under her hood to see her warm reception.

"Ravy!" Frost cheered happily, the only one showing any emotion amongst the grim looking faces of the rest of the Konquerors. They were all in attention, which annoyed Raven as she could feel the tension in the air.

"Hey, if you're gonna slap me, can you at least do it on the other side? I'm trying to keep it even." Frost took her ninja mask off and offered her other cheek.

Raven was not in the mood to play any of her games unfortunately.

"Where is he?"

"The Red X dude? He's fine! I sent Sektor to give you guys the suit back, I woulda loved to see the expression in Robin's face when he got a load of that."

"Frost, there was blood everywhere on the suit. You can't beat criminals half to death before turning them in."

"Hey! But it's better than beating them completely to death right?" Frost said with a grin making a suspiciously specific denial.

Raven narrowed her eyes feeling that something was amiss "Frost…" She said dangerously, a scowl forming on her thin lips. "You didn't kill him did you?"

"Kill him? Naaah, he's okay! He's just a little… ermm.. I mean, I'm sure he'll wake up eventually…maybe."

Raven just started to get angrier and angrier, her comely features twisting in barely restrained fury, the cloak she wore already starting grow out black tendrils feeling her demonic rage overtaking her. "Where is he…?"

"Do you promise not to get angry?" The ice kunoichi said with an embarrassed smile.

"WHERE IS HE?" In response she only got Raven's demonic version of her voice screaming at her. The rest of the Konquerors instantly got up with their guard on, ready to take down the half demon magician if needed. Frost motioned for all them to calm down with her hands. It was strange, for some reason they didn't like to see their leader getting talked down to. Despite Frost's irritating attitude they still felt protective about her.

Somehow the Lin Kuei girl managed to keep the situation from getting out of control and motioned Raven towards their modest laptop. There she got Sektor to access a camera feed and put it on the full screen showing a hospital room with a young man hooked up to a respirator, unconscious.

"Things…got a little out of hand. After we managed to subdue him I felt this..overpowering sensation to finish him off. I can't explain it Raven, it's like something took control of my body. Before I knew what was happening I was trying to freeze his heart, I managed to pull out before I gave him cardiac arrest and we rushed him to the hospital. Sektor installed this camera in his room so we could keep up with him, he's alive but he's apparently in a coma."

"Raven… I ain't fit to be a hero; if you wanna go ahead and break ties here I won't blame ya. You can take your nifty energy shield with you too, we'll manage."

Frost turned her back on Raven, the rest of the Konquerors keeping a safe distance from the two. The kunoichi figured that in the best case scenario, Raven will get fed up by her constant screw ups and leave, they would have to relocate as she would most likely bring the Titans against them in full force, but that was acceptable. Worst case scenario? Raven jumped off the deep end and tried to take them all out by herself right there and then. Frost clenched her fists ready to summon her ice daggers; it would be a bloody battle for sure even if she was certain they could take the soon to be enraged half demon down.

The latter was starting to sound very likely, Raven hadn't taken her eyes off the screen of the comatose Red X and the tendrils on her cloak were still visible.

When she did turn around her eyes were blood shot red and the Konquerors got ready to put the demon down before she went into a rampage.

To all involved, battle appeared inevitable, it was a natural reflex to them by now, get into some kind of misunderstanding and solve it through violence. Reasoning was for the weak, only the strong had any say in the world. That was, at its core, Mortal Kombat, proving that you were strong enough to exist.

Well, Nightwolf had enough of that; it was that meek acceptance of his fate that had left him cursed forever.

"Do not blame her Raven" The shaman spoke up, ignoring the glare that Frost was giving him for interrupting. "Only I am to blame for the current condition of Red X, it was I who told Frost to kill him when she truly intended to spare his life. She showed remarkable self restrain refusing to do deliver the fatal blow. If you wish to place the blame on someone, then do so only on me."

"He's not the only one." Jade spoke next, taking Frost by surprise. "We all told her to kill him. It is tradition for us to slay any foe bested in battle, Frost broke away from tradition only for your sake, sorceress."

"It is not our way to spare the defeated." Saibot agreed. "Red X lives only because Frost wills it. Had it been any one of us, he would not have been so lucky."

All that needed to be said had been said, though Sektor felt compelled to address the magician directly "You are very fortunate to have her as your lover."

It was not Raven who appeared surprised at the Konqueror's praising of the ninja, but Frost herself. She didn't think she inspired such respect from her allies; it left her more than a little dumbstruck. "I swear I ain't paying them to say any of this."

Ignoring Frost's vain attempts at excuses, Raven thoughts went to the dream she had earlier that night. If what she had seen was real, if that was the type of thing Frost had to deal with every day, it was no wonder why she acted the way she did.

Raven dealt with life threatening situations every day, she was no stranger to danger and would never shy away from it. But even then it could not compare with the things she saw, the assistance of the Titans helped cushion the impact considerably, Robin's leadership, the comfort of the Tower, the well thought out methodical system in which they engaged criminals and left them for the authorities. Frost had none of that, nor did the rest of the Konquerors. Their method was simple in its brutality.

Two people step into the ring, and only one comes out alive.

Raven thought of Starfire's words. Sway her with love? How could she teach her something that she didn't know either?

"It's obvious we're going to have to work on some kinks." Raven broke the silence, her eyes were normal now and her cloak no longer looked as if it was about to grow tentacles. "I'm not happy with what you did, there are limits to the damage you can do." Sighed Raven taking another look at the camera feed showing the unconscious unmasked X.

"But at least he's alive, that's something. Red X is a criminal and he got what was coming to him."

Frost gave a relieved sigh; she had really dodged a bullet.

"I need to talk to you." The sorceress bore her emotionless eyes on the ninja girl who gave her a quizzical look.

"Sure, shoot."

"Not here, in private."

A cat like smirk spread through Frost's lips. "Oooh? Shall we take this to our room?"

Raven made an annoyed face, she should have known that Frost was going to pervert that somehow. "I was thinking somewhere less distracting. How about the park?"

Frost's eyes suddenly fluttered looking very hopeful. "Are you asking me out on a date?"

The sorceress glanced to the sides, is that what people called that nowadays? "Sure… let's call it a date."

"YES!" Without thinking, Frost jumped in delight with an over dramatic cheer. She then realized that such a reaction would damage her reputation as a cool badass. Composing herself, Frost cleared her throat and spoke huskily to Raven. "Sure thing, babe. Want me to give you a few to get all dolled up for me? Unless you wanna walk around in your super hero get up."

Raven glanced outside to the window noticing that it was still dark; dawn wouldn't come until a few more hours. "It may be for the best if we wait until morning. Nine sound good? You know where the park is right?"

"Yes and yes." The kunoichi winked and snapped her fingers to the sorceress.

Raven still had a neutral expression on her face; though her lips twitched in what was apparently the beginning of smile even if it went no further. "Great, I'll see you there."

"See ya!"

Frost waited a full half a second after Raven teleported out of their lair to squeal like a school girl and jump up and down.

"Everybody put your hands up!" She demanded of her Konquerors who bewilderedly raised their hands at the order. Frost came running at them smacking their open palms.

"Y'all is getting High Fives!"

Except for Jade who started running away from her claiming that she would have no part of Frost's carnal conquests. Frost obviously didn't take no for an answer and started chasing her all over the warehouse.

"Come back here and give me some skin woman!"

######

Raven's idea of 'getting dolled up' may disappoint Frost.

Her casual civilian attire was depressingly similar to her super hero costume. The sorceress' choice consisted of an all black sweat shirt with a matching hoodie, black sweat pants and black running shoes, dark enough to make even the most hardcore goth cry, though it wasn't like that was a hard thing to do.

It was obviously not for fashion's sake as she lacked the heavy jewelry that was associated with such style. She didn't have spiked collars, or laced up bootS or arm warmers. She dressed that way because she was, quite frankly, very anti social. The girl sat by herself on a bench with her legs crossed, her hands tucked on her sweatshirt's front pockets and her hood up like she did with her cloak.

She was unsure of what was she going to do when Frost got there. The images of her nightmare still haunted her, seeing that woman kill Frost so brutally made her realize that dealing with the ninja as if she was a normal human girl was wrong. Frost should, for all intended purposes, be beyond shell shocked.

The participants of the tournament were most of them veteran warriors that dealt with life and death constantly (except for perhaps Johnny Cage).

But Frost? She was a teenager girl, a delinquent at best, her previous fighting experience only consisted of random school fights and running away from cops after shop lifting. She should be a mental wreck, scarred beyond all comprehension and turned into a trembling excuse of a person. However she still acted like a regular teenager girl, albeit a psychotic one with sadistic tendencies, but who is to say that wasn't normal behavior for a young girl?

Raven had been granted great power that had left her emotionally barren. Cyborg's technological enhancements gave him strength beyond the strongest human and it had turned him reclusive and insecure. Starfire was one of the strongest of her already considerably powerful race, heiress to the throne, and this had left her naïve in the ways of any culture of her own, unable to even comprehend how powerful she was due to her innocence. Beast Boy? Despite his cheerful prankster attitude he was the most emotionally unstable of them all, he hid all his fears behind layers upon layers of optimism, he may be able to fool the others but not an empath like Raven. And Robin, poor, conflicted Robin, the death of his parents brought him to a one man crusade against the world, obsessed to the point where nothing else mattered, not even his own safety.

Frost didn't seem to have such problems, she soaked herself in bloodshed every waking moment of her existence and she acted as if that was norm.

Which gave Raven an epiphany.

Frost thought that was normal! That was the problem! She had never known anything else in her life; it's why she thought so little of taking someone's life. Her culture didn't condone murder, it praised it, honored it. She only needed to think about Nightwolf to prove her point; this Mortal tournament could twist a wise and composed spirit such as the shaman's into a ruthless murderer that tried to kill cops left and right.

Raven needed to think and formulate a plan to take care of Frost. She had perhaps already discovered why the ninja girl acted the way she did, but know the why and knowing how to fix it where two very different things. Raven's forte wasn't teaching people how to be touchy feely, why couldn't Frost just snagged Starfire instead of her? The alien girl would be much better at teaching Frost how to love. Then again Raven shuddered at the idea of Frost ravishing Starfire's innocent body; she would probably teach her all kind of perverted things like that thing Frost did to her the other night, she didn't even know she was that flexible..

Feeling herself blushing at the memories, Raven shook her head to clear all those intrusive thoughts and closed her eyes preparing to do some light mediation before Frost arrived. She was certain that she could snap out of her trance when she sensed Frost approaching so she couldn't sneak attack her.

"Hi!"

Oh, right, Frost is a ninja, she could hide her energy.

Raven's concentration was broken by a cold pair of hands touching her cheeks making her to recoil in surprise. The sorceress forced her eyes open and frowned at the image she saw.

Frost was looking…surprisingly girly, with a deep blue sleeveless shirt, a matching vest on top and a flirty plaid skirt combo. Looking further down, Raven's eyes twitched noticing that she was wearing quite trendy looking Converse shoes like a skater.

"You look nice!" Smiled Frost, keeping her hands behind her back, swaying on her heels back and forth. If it weren't for the spiked up hair, the blue lipstick and the fact that her arms and legs looked quite toned, Raven would swear she was just a helpless girl.

At the compliment, she got up from the bench "Thank you, you look nice too.."

"Don't take this the wrong way, but you don't have, like, a skin condition, do you? You won't spontaneously combust if out in the sun too long right?"

Raven grumbled when Frost jumped to conclusions. "No, I just don't like the sun."

"Ohmygosh, that's so cute." Frost covered her mouth and tittered. Raven frowned profusely. Was this really a professional assassin with near God like super powers? It was very hard to believe.

"Sorry, I just think it's adorable." The girl smiled brightly leaning down to brush her lips against Raven's cheek giving her a light peck, the sorceress returned the gesture feeling comfortable in the presence of the plucky ninja.

Reaching down for Raven's hand, the kunoichi in civilian clothing started tugging away leading the Titan girl, also in civilian clothing, for a walk in the park.

Thankfully there weren't a whole lot of people in the park at the time, just a few joggers and people walking their dogs, so Frost could hold hands with Raven to her heart's content without being worried about someone starting at them. Not that she'd care anyway. Besides with her current attire Raven could be mistaken for a guy, albeit a short one, that liked to date taller women.

"So what did you want to talk about, toots?"

"I just wanted to spend some time with you." Raven admitted, with a hint of shyness to her voice. "Couples do other things besides fighting and having sex you know?"

"You don't say?" Frost cackled "Well, if you wanted to spend some quality time with Cool as Ice here you coulda given me a heads up; I could have gotten us a nice reservation at a fancy restaurant and have dinner by candle light."

Raven looked skeptical "With what money?"

"I got some dough stored away somewhere."

Raven just stared at her, seeing through her veil of lies.

"Okay, I'm broke; I probably would have stolen something from Burger King and get Sektor to light something on fire with his flame throwers."

Despite her morbid demeanor, Raven found herself giggling and eased into Frost's grip, even curling her arm around the other girl's arm to lean her head on Frost's shoulder. So much for giving the impression that Raven was the guy.

"Soo.." While Raven looked perfectly comfortable staying silent through the ordeal, Frost wasn't one that held her peace very often and began trying to make light conversation.

"You use magic huh? I knew a couple of guys that used magic back in my realm. They were all really evil though, no offense."

"None taken, it is quite common for mages to turn to the path of evil. Power of such magnitude corrupts weak minds and they often abuse their gifts for their own selfish gain."

"Haha..yeah…" Frost laughed weakly and looked away feeling a sting of guilt. "What a bunch of losers.." Inadvertently, Raven given her quite a jab on the ribs since that was pretty much what Frost was doing. Abuse her powers to control the much weaker population for her own gains. Perhaps it wasn't as inadvertent and Raven had directed every word towards her, just in a subtle way, such was the sly nature of the sorceress.

Frost decided to change topic before Raven somehow managed to make her feel terrible, she should probably talk about something she knows. "So! What kind of fighting style do you use?"

"Fighting style?"

"Yeah, you know, I haven't gotten the chance to fight you in melee since you mostly stick to chi attacks, so I couldn't tell at the bank. I bet it's something kickass like Tang Soo Do, it's common amongst magic types."

Raven couldn't help but smirk softly at Frost's obsession with fighting. "I don't have a fighting style, I know a few maneuvers and I know how to throw a punch, but I've never had formal training like Robin has."

"You.. don't have a fighting style?"

Raven shook her head.

"But you know magic, right?"

"Yes..?" Raven didn't know what Frost was getting at.

"That doesn't make any sense! If your body is capable of transmitting chi then you should be able to fight hand to hand just as easy."

"It doesn't work like that Frost; I've spent most of my life meditating and reading ancient texts which doesn't yield much fighting insight, or build muscle for that matter. The few moves I've picked up I've learned from Robin and even then I try to keep it at a minimum. I've explained you all this before, my emotions are dangerous.."

"Yea yeah, and if you blow a fuse you might summon an eldritch abomination by accident and blow a chunk outta reality or something. See! That /would/ make sense if it didn't directly contradict the teachings of Grandmaster Bodhidharma."

Raven blinked a couple of times. "You know about Bodhidharma?"

"Of course, babe! Every self respecting martial artist needs to give mad props to the dude."

"I don't see why the two are related, he's only responsible for bringing Buddhism to China."

"Rae!" The ninja girl grasped Raven's cheek and pulled it slightly making the sorceress scowl in annoyance.

"Ow! What is your problem!"

"Sorry babe, but ignorance really doesn't suit you! Grandmaster Bodhi did soooo much more than just bring Buddhism to China. He's the founding father of all martial arts. Do you even know his full story?"

Raven had to admit he was a little flustered. She was used to being the smartest in her group. Robin knew all about politics and martial arts and Cyborg was consulted about all things mechanical but Raven was a fountain of information to anything ranging from mundane like history to arcane and cosmic knowledge. Having a self proclaimed punk girl like Frost give her a history lesson was positively humbling.

"Grandmaster Bodhi renounced all worldly things in search for spiritual enlightenment, which of course back in the old days meant being the most baddass mo' fo in the neighborhood. He abdicated from the throne of India and /walked/ the Himalaya to China on his own bare freaking feet to attain perfection with monks."

"Problem was that Chinese monks were all book worms that spent their whole freaking day meditating and reading ancient texts" Frost gave Raven a knowing glare. "Their weak bodies couldn't handle enlightenment because it would utterly destroy their puny nerd selves! So what does Grandmaster Bodhi do? He teaches them Indian military training which the monks called hard work. And you know how you say hard work in Chinese?"

That was something Raven did know "Kung fu?"

"Bingo! Those monks? They were the Shaolin, who are now regarded as the most hardcore fighters ever! Believe you me, Raven, when I trained in the Lin Kuei monastery I had to spend whole friggin' days meditating and studying, it's not just about putting on a ninja get up and whoop butt, it's about training your mind as much as your body. That's why people that rely simply on their strength or those that only use chi attacks will never achieve greatness. Because they are only willing to work out just a fraction of their bodies."

"Of course, Grandmaster Bodhi was then later killed by Goro in the third Mortal Kombat tournament but he was still a huge badass, his memory will endure for all eternity." There were some slight variations there on the Bodhidharma Raven knew, it seemed that the Bodhidharma from Frost's dimension had participated in Mortal Kombat.

Frost clenched her fist, by now the two girls had stopped walking, the ninja girl had become to passionate with her speech and Raven could do nothing else but stare with wide purple eyes. She had been wrong to think that Frost and Robin were the same, the Titan leader would never have the level of determination Frost had, the sorceress thought she was seeing Robin times a million while she stared at the fiery cold ninja.

"I intend on going even beyond that, to claim my rightful place amongst the Eldergods. There's a saying that goes 'Fear not the man that has practiced a thousand kicks, fear he who has practiced one kick one thousand times'. That ain't gonna be me, baby, I'm going to practice one thousand kicks, one thousand times each!"

And Raven finally unlocked the mystery why her powers didn't get out of control when she was around Frost. The cold girl was more than simply powerful, she was in complete and utter control of her body, her mental discipline went to such an extreme that no matter in what state of mind she were she would be able to control her power. Her emotions didn't rule over her like they did with Raven, she didn't try to keep her rage at bay; she embraced it, soaked in it and bend it to her will.

Where Raven was a walking meltdown waiting to happen, Frost was a tactical nuke, she could unleash her power not like a sledgehammer, but like a chisel, destroying only what she desired and not a single inch more. Her control was such that it extended to Raven just by being in proximity with the girl.

She wasn't a Demi-Deity. She was a full on honest to goodness Goddess.

And Raven was dating her.

"And furthermore-ACK!" Frost felt a surprisingly strong arm hooking her by the neck as Raven dragged her out of the main park road and into the forested area just beside it and out prying eyes. She pinned her back against a tree, removed her hoodie and pressed her lips upon the other girl's with great passion.

Raven could not deny it anymore, Starfire had been right all along; she truly was in love with Frost because she had been able to see beyond her bratty attitude. When she stared into those bewildered blue eyes she saw not an arrogant an immature psychopath, she saw someone that had transcended mere humanity through immense training.

No one had given Frost her powers, she had earned them and she had mastered them, she was only a year younger than Raven and she was already at a level that was far beyond the magician's grasp.

Much like Frost, Raven was greatly inexperienced when it cameo tender feelings such as love, the emotions were completely foreign to her, she wasn't even sure she had such an emotion until now. Because of this, her only source where she could base herself where romance novels that she read every once in a while, prompting her to woo Frost in a most quaint manner.

"My winter hunter.." The sorceress whispered hotly between kisses, trailing Frost's lips with her tongue to wet them before pressing herself against her again. "My silver hunter.." Frost's confusion as to why Raven was reading poetry to her was not enough for her to not enjoy her caresses. She wasn't used to being the receiver, her role was to make the advances and make the coy sorceress blush and yet, she found Raven's suddenly fierce behavior to her liking. She had really made a break through.

"My Goddess.." Raven could not imagine life without her plucky ninja companion. The thought of being unable to express her emotions again horrified her.

The mystic began trailing kisses down Frost's slender neck, kissing her collarbone and the fabric of her shirt before she continued sliding lower, though she seemingly was quoting from a book she read, her motions where improvised and she acted out of passion as much as from memory. She kneeled, like a knight professing his devotion to a princess and took Frost's hand pressing her soft lips upon the ninja's calloused knuckles. "I will be your priestess; I will do anything you wish…"

"I love you, Frost, my winter silver hunter."

It was clear her decision was made; she would stand by Frost no matter her allegiance with the Titans.

Her next movement was not something she had read in any book, the sorceress slid closer to the bewildered ninja, still kneeled, and hugger her leg where she began kissing her naked thigh.

And all Frost could say to that was "Man, I knew it was good idea to wear a skirt today."

###################

It was true the Hive Five really didn't have a tradition where they cooked something for their new members. However, Jinx thought that Sheeva and Baraka deserved to be welcomed into their midst properly.

They were definitely the strongest members the Hive had ever acquired after their original three. Kyd, Billy and Seemore had been late additions to their team that they only really allowed to stick around because they had nowhere else to go. Unlike Jinx, Mammoth and Gizmo they weren't the top ranking students of the Hive Academy. Only Private HIVE could compare in terms of power to Sheeva and Baraka; though his run with the Hive Five had been very short lived. Because he was so powerful, he thought this made him the de facto leader of the team, a thought that Jinx had not agreed with. The two had an argument too many and since Jinx had the full support of the rest of the team (none of the others wanted Private HIVE to lead since he was a hard ass) the Hive zealot packed up his things and left in a huff.

When the four-armed woman and the psychopath with the retractable blades first showed up on their doorstep, Jinx had been skeptical. She thought she would have another episode of Private HIVE; they were strong and ambitious which meant a threat to her leadership. Fortunately for her Sheeva respected the chain of command like a soldier would, she even saluted Jinx and attempted to call her Commander a few times, though Jinx wasn't that strict with her team and got the Shokan to address her by name only. Baraka had taken longer to control; he was wild, unpredictable and sadistic. Once Jinx found out that he had the mental capacity of an attack dog though, it was easy to tame him. Jinx thought that if she really tried she might be able to get him to fetch things for her, but that would probably be too demeaning; she was trying to run a super-villain team here not a wolf pack.

Yes, things were certainly looking up for the Hive Five. The newest members where not only extremely powerful, unlike Billy, Kyd and Seemore, but they also had great synergy with the rest of the team, unlike Private HIVE. Sheeva and Baraka were the best of both worlds, strong and obedient. They had bested the Titans once again and they also soundly defeated another group of yet to be identified criminals.

Jinx thought that because of this they all deserved a breather.

While the boys distanced themselves to do what boys did best, fight amongst themselves and throw food at each other, Jinx sat next to the tall quiet giant, Sheeva. The woman had grown on her. Jinx had long resigned herself to be the only girl in the Hive Five team, so to have another female in the team was quite refreshing, more so because once she got past how strange she looked, Sheeva was quite easy to get along with.

"I apologize for Baraka's behavior." Said the Shokan to the Hive Five leader when she slid up next to her with her plate of food. Baraka was currently busy engaged in a three way food fight with Mammoth and Gizmo. "Tarkatans have never been known for their calmed composed nature."

"It's okay." Jinx smiled, knowing full well it wouldn't be her cleaning up that mess. "I'm glad the boys have someone to play with. Mammoth and Gizmo needed someone of medium height to act as the go between and I think Baraka is better suited for that job than me."

Jinx had always considered herself to be one of the boys, but Mammoth's stupidity and Gizmo's obscene behavior annoyed her, so she tried to keep her distance when she could.

"How are you liking our team so far, Sheeva?"

"I can say without a doubt you are the best commander I've ever had." The Shokan warrior gave a soft nod, speaking honestly, honor bound to always speak the truth. "It is a pleasure to fight by your side and I thank you for these delicacies you and yours have cooked for us today."

Jinx smirked a little when Sheeva called chili with nachos 'delicacies', poor girl. "You're welcome, but honestly that's just junk food. One of these days after we pull a big heist I'll wine and dine you all in a fancy restaurant like the head honchos at the Hive Academy used to take us to sometime."

Sheeva grinned; Jinx had also started to grow on her. "I would welcome that."

"Guys, guys! We got a situation!" Gizmo flew towards Jinx and Sheeva using his mini jet pack and landed next to them; he was covered in chili.

The pink haired girl did a double take back to their mess hall and glared angrily at Gizmo. "Hell yeah we got a situation, you three completely trashed the place!"

"No! No that!" The tiny inventor shook his head and waved his hands in front of him. "Someone just broke through our main door! The scanners say there's an unidentified target heading directly for us!"

"What!" Jinx bolted up, moving her plate of food out of the way. Maybe leaving the Eye of Solomon back at the museum hadn't been a good idea; it looked like someone had discovered their secret hide out!

"Hive Five! Defensive positions!"

The Hive Five lair wasn't terribly technologically advanced. It had a large control panel, Gizmo's laboratory, a few holding cells and hidden alarms, but its self-defense mechanism was non-existent. That was just fine for Jinx and her team; they made up for their lack of equipment with sheer tenacity and superior tactics.

The two power houses, Mammoth and Sheeva, formed a wall in front of Jinx to guard the main entrance while Gizmo and Baraka fanned to the sides waiting in ambush.

Normally Jinx wouldn't even tackle an intruder head on like this; she would hide her team completely and catch them unaware instead of the other way around. There hadn't been much time to plan something though and it was best to at least hide two of their number than none at all.

As the main gate opened Mammoth and Sheeva stood closer, shoulder to shoulder to act as a barrier for their pink haired leader, and out came a ghost of Jinx's past.

"Hello children."

"Slade!" Jinx pushed her way through Mammoth and Sheeva. She wasn't going to hide behind them to talk to their old contractor, she couldn't allow showing any fear before the Terminator.

"I heard you were dead." Spoke the hex caster, staring dead square at the armored man. He was just a she remembered him; that cold one eyed look, that terrifying aura of a calculating killer without scruples, there was no mistaking it. That was either Slade or a very convincing duplicate.

"Rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated." The Terminator responded putting on his usual air of superiority. "You would think that after the second time, people wouldn't be so quick to believe what they hear. It's almost as if they were scared I would come back." A dark chuckle followed; the type that made Jinx's spine chill.

This would be the second time that Deathstrike comes back from the death, was this man immortal?

"If you're trying to hire us for a jig you better have a good offer. We aren't with the Hive Academy anymore and won't be doing things for free."

Jinx scowled in frustration when Slade responded by giving his signature snide chuckle. It was as if every gesture from the assassin just dripped of calculated arrogance; every movement he did was better than hers and he knew it.

"Oh, no no, that will not be necessary. I have no need for mercenaries anymore; in fact, your services are no longer required."

Jinx's fists clenched knowingly; she didn't like the sound of that.

"The only reason why I am here is because my new Master is…of rather large girth and will require ample amounts of space to make his new lair. I believe this will suits his purposes. Naturally I expect you to graciously vacate the premises at your earliest convenience. By which I mean of course, right this instant."

Mammoth and Sheeva recognized fighting words when they heard them and readied themselves to from a protective shield for their leader, each taking one step forward to protect Jinx with their bodies. The much smaller girl made a motion with her hand keeping them in their place while she gave Slade a piercing stare.

"We're not rolling over like a beaten dog."

In a fraction of a second Deathstrike was reaching for the hilt of his sword when he sensed movement coming from directly above. He drew his weapon up vertically in front of him and barely blocked the double swipe coming at him to decapitate him.

Being a master strategist, Jinx hadn't snapped her fingers or given any visible signal to attack, instead she had 'trained' Baraka to pounce intruders when she said that specific phrase. Once the Tarkatan heard the signal, he had leapt down from the ceiling where he lay hidden along with Gizmo in an invisibility field and fell upside down making a double bladed slash at Slade. The only reason why the Terminator's head was still attached to his neck after that was his quick reflexes.

"Very crafty as usual, my dear Jinx." Slade leaped to the side as Baraka did a twirl in midair and landed on his feet. The assassin was no slouch himself, he was perfectly aware there were a few of the Hive Five missing. It was obvious that they had a trap for him; he just didn't know where it was coming from. What truly surprised him was that he didn't recognize Baraka as one of the Hive Academy students; it was a variable he hadn't considered.

Baraka continued his attack by bringing both blades down upon Slade to bisect his arms through his shoulders. The assassin went for the overhead block, followed by a down block when Baraka attempted the same attack coming from below trying to slice him through his armpits. The monstrous man was fast, he wasn't giving Slade a chance to counter; skill was meaningless when there was no time to execute it.

Baraka attacked him four more times, slashing viciously from side to side, hitting Slade's sword every time causing sparks to fly everywhere. Jinx hadn't intended for Baraka to try and take Deathstrike all by himself, if the sneak attack failed he was supposed to jump back and let his team overwhelm the foe with superior numbers.

The Tarkatan may be a dog in attitude, but he wasn't a lap dog; he was an attack dog, a hunter and a killer. He saw an opportunity and went for it, acting far too fast for any of the other HIVE Five members to react.

He moved to plunge his blades in deep and missed, giving Slade the opportunity he was looking for.

All winced when they thought Baraka was about to get his head sliced off, save for Sheeva who knew exactly what Baraka was doing.

That was a feint he often used against her.

When Slade side stepped and swung his sword in an arc to chop Baraka's head at the jaw, the Tarkatan promptly opened his gaping maw and chomped down on the blade, stopping it with his vicious fangs.

The Terminator's eye widened at the very unorthodox defensive maneuver and promptly felt pain in his mid-section as Baraka eviscerated him. The thrusting blade went right through his solar plexus to be yanked fiercely back out, tearing through his skin and armor, leaving it covered in blood with a bit of intestine hanging from the tip.

Deathstrike staggered back, holding the gaping hole on his stomach with his hand. To his credit he didn't scream as lesser men would when getting a good chunk of their innards ripped out, but he was clearly not fighting anymore. The assassin leaned his back against a wall and saw Gizmo fly down from his hiding spot pointing a strange cylinder at him.

The mad inventor shot a sticky green substance at the assassin, restraining him and closing his wound in the process.

"Now to finish you off!" The savage warrior jumped, bloodied blades extended to twin impale Slade and kill him for what would probably be the third time.

"Baraka! Down boy!" The Tarkatan's pointed ears twitched hearing Jinx's commanding voice. He shrank down slightly and looked behind him staring at the hex caster's disapproving glare.

"What did I tell you? No killing!"

"Curse it all to the abyss," Grumbled Baraka, shooting Slade an evil look, spitting to the side in the process to get rid of the rusty metallic taste of the mercenary's sword. "You got lucky."

The Tarkatan moved away and flicked the piece of intestine off his blade. He though he had done a good job and quickly went to reward himself by snatching Jinx's plate to wolf the chili and nachos down.

"Anyway…" To be honest Jinx had been horrified by the blood soaked spectacle, she had never seen anyone get their stomachs ripped out. Mammoth and Gizmo were equally silent, with the mad inventor looking a bit pale. The fear that overtook them soon turned to jubilation; Baraka had just gutted Slade, /the/ Slade, Deathstrike the Terminator. Anyone who could do that was worthy to be kept around as an ally and not a foe. Jinx forced a smile to creep through her lips despite being shaken to her core. "I don't think my new friend here appreciates your threats too much."

"Guess he showed you, didn't he?"

"Yeah! Think twice before you mess with us booger brain barf eater!"

With their confidence returning after Baraka's display Mammoth and Gizmo allowed themselves to brag and taunt the bleeding, restrained Slade.

Thanks to his mask, it was impossible to tell what was he thinking, but Jinx knew better than to expect him to be afraid. He was Deathstrike after all; he was the man that could outwit Batman.

"Very impressive, yes, I must admit that I didn't expect you children to have some outside help." After staring at Baraka for a few moments, Slade also noticed Sheeva standing by the side. "Yes, that was my mistake, I apologize, where are my manners after all?"

"I should also introduce you to my new friends."

Everyone, save for Baraka who was still busy stuffing his face, tensed when they heard slow steps approaching the room from the corridor leading outside. The dull sound of rattling chains accompanied the coming of humanoid figure as it emerged from the shadows. It was a black haired man with ghostly pale skin; he looked lean and athletic despite his sickly pallor, although there was obviously something wrong with him. His footsteps were slow and his head hung as if he was in a daze, chains were wrapped tightly across his forearms as if they were gauntlets.

When he raised his head, it was clear to all just what was the man's problem. He was missing an eye and a great piece of his cheek showing the teeth underneath, also his neck was visibly broken as he popped his head back up into his shoulders. He was dead, but he was walking.

The walking dead… a zombie.

"Eldergods have mercy." Sheeva gasped in horror, showing fear for the first time since joining the Hive Five. "It's Liu Kang..."

"Liu Kang!" Baraka spat out his chili, dropping the plate in the process, and extended his blades. "Where!"

A sickening crack of bone snapping into place was heard from the zombie as he looked up hearing his name. Sheeva trembled in place until she caught her courage and dropped into a fighting stance, Baraka rushed in to her side with blades unfurled, rage in his eyes, it was a rage designed to suppress fear.

"Is he a friend of you two?" Jinx looked worriedly at her newest allies, never having seen them so unsure of themselves.

"Fight," the Shokan hissed under her breath trying to keep her composure. "Fight like you've never fought before."

"Oh come on, it's just a stupid zombie." The Hex Caster had seen enough zombie movies to know that all zombies were durable, but weak, slow and stupid. Sheeva and Baraka were probably just worried that eviscerating the guy wouldn't stop him since he was dead. It figures they would panic against an opponent they couldn't kill, but Jinx didn't have to worry of such things, her fighting style wasn't lethal.

"Take this!" Flicking her hand at the undead Shaolin Monk, the witch sent a hex bolt at his feet to break the ground under him and immobilize him, certain that would take care of that.

And suddenly she realized that this zombie wasn't in the least bit slow.

Liu Kang's dead gaze brightened with the cold determination of the Mortal Kombat champion and exploded forward. The hex bolt hit ground well enough, but the Shaoilin was already in mid-air on a direct trajectory towards Jinx, his leg extended to slam a flame covered foot right into the confused, pink haired witch.

Mammoth and Sheeva reacted without thinking, the two stepped up to defend Jinx with their bodies, curling their arms to take the incoming kick on their forearms.

The impact was massive, it took both Mammoth and Jinx by surprise, Sheeva knew full well how hard Liu Kang could strike but it still didn't cushion to blow any. All were momentarily deafened as the collision with foot against three blocking arms (Sheeva counted as two) caused a shockwave which sent the two statuesque beings flying back and bursting through a few walls. Sheeva landed somewhere in Gizmo's laboratory while Mammoth fell through the thick wall that separated the living room and the kitchen. He groaned as he went to try and get back up. "Son of a…I think he just broke my arm."

"Jinx!" Gizmo and Baraka said at the same time when Liu Kang stared at the surprised hex caster.

The mad inventor tried to keep his distance by hovering just outside the undead monk's range, training a laser canon at him ready to blast him into smithereens. The shot would probably singe Jinx too but hey, its easier to ask for forgiveness than ask for permission.

Unfortunately for him, Liu Kang closed the distance in an instant. He flew into the air with great dexterity and tornado kicked the inventor right out of the sky. His heel collided against his small frame that was protected only by his jet pack and sent him flying where he collided against Mammoth's broad chest sending the two back into the ground.

Baraka tried to take a swipe when Liu Kang was coming back to the ground and the Shaolin reacted by smacking the blade out of the way with his open palm leaving the Tarkatan open, Baraka wasn't feinting that time, he really did stumble. Hitting Baraka in the chin with a devastating uppercut, Liu Kang sent the monster spinning in the air and finished him off with a side thrust kick to the spine sending him tumbling on top of Gizmo and Mammoth.

With her team utterly demolished, Jinx didn't even get a chance to respond. No sooner had she opened her mouth to at least try to reason with the monk, to ask who he was and why was he doing this, than Liu Kang spun on his heel and kicked her in the stomach.

The hex witch too went flying, though Liu Kang had the courtesy of sending her towards Sheeva instead of the boy pile.

"GUAGH!" She crashed into the Shokan back first, who caught her and saved her from a nasty fall. Jinx wheezed, trying to inhale all the air that had been violently kicked out of her, and sputtered. No one had ever hit her that hard, not Robin, not Frost, not even Mammoth when they spared. "Wh-who is this guy?"

"Liu Kang," Responded Sheeva, her left lower arm hanging limply at her side, shattered. "Mortal Kombat champion and the best fighter of our realm. No one has ever been able to best him in combat. You see him now as an undead only due to treachery."

Jinx hated to admit it but she couldn't continue fighting in her current condition. She had only been hit once and she already felt horrible, her insides where burning and her lungs ached as they struggled to suck air back into her body.

"D-Damn..."

She had no choice.

"Hive F-Five…retreat!"

None of the Hive Five members could teleport out of their own will, which was why Gizmo had installed some emergency escape pods here and there just for this kind of situation. The wounded criminals rolled to their sides, accessed some hidden control panels, and hastily entered the capsules that would catapult them out into the city and into secondary secret hide outs. Mammoth, Baraka and Gizmo got into three separate ones, though Sheeva had to carry Jinx and take her to the same escape pod.

Slade had to give that witch credit. She certainly always had a plan B. And a plan C. And a plan D… He had seen far more devious criminal minds perish when their lair was discovered because their only backup plan was to stand their ground and go down fighting. He also noticed that the lights flickered and there were a couple of short circuits in the walls, probably the Hive Five's database self-destructing so that none of their information could be used against them.

Say all you wanted about the Hive Academy, they certainly knew how to train their students.

With the last enemy gone Liu Kang stood in his gangly stance. His neck dislocated itself again, and his head hung sickeningly to the side. The undead monk made no attempt to try and help Slade, content with simply standing there making slight zombie-like groans.

It didn't concern the Terminator too much, for the Hive Five's ex-lair began trembling as another figure emerged from the corridor. This one at least three times the size of a normal human, and about two feet taller than Mammoth.

"They are gone, Master. Your undead pet has certainly proven his worth."

The creature emerged; a giant, humanoid dragon, covered in green scales. Humongous bat wings covered his body like a cape and a great helm protected most of his face, two yellow glowing orbs looked about to inspect his new domain.

"I expected nothing else from the so called champion of Earthrealm. He caused my subordinate much trouble, even if he deserved every last bit of it for ever daring to betray me."

The creature lazily glanced to his side and down to Deathstrike. He was still attached to a wall via some gooey goop. "And what happened to you?"

"Apparently the children had some unexpected allies from your dimension, Lord. One of them seemed a little too eager about sticking his blades into peoples' stomachs. I believe he was called, Baraka."

The mysterious giant gave something akin to snort, sulfuric smoke curling from his nostrils. "Yes, that does sound like Baraka." He reached down with a massive claw like hand and effortlessly removed the goo that restrained the mercenary. He followed that with a careless flick of his wrist and Slade's wound instantly healed.

The assassin checked at his body, tapping where the wounds once were. Not even traces of blood remained in his armor.

Slade nodded, he may call this strange creature Master and Lord and even kneel before him, but he will never ever say thank you to anyone.

"What do you think of your new lair?"

At this the giant shook his helmeted head and extended his wings, revealing a colossal scaled body. "This pathetic cave is hardly fitting for one such as I, I had thought you would serve me better Slade. I didn't revive your body just so you could do minimal effort."

"I assure you, this is only the staging grounds from more ambitious projects Master. I will ensure that our next conquest pleases your Highness. This I swear… Lord Onaga."

The giant chuckled and moved further into his new hide out. Liu Kang lumbered out of the way as the large being casually waved his hand again, force starting the Hive Five's generators back to life; his power seemingly limitless and omnipotent.

"See to it that it is done," Grumbled Onaga "The Dragon King does not tolerate failures."


	11. Deception

DECEPTION

AN: Thank you all for your wonderful reviews, I will endeavor to continue providing you all with quality entertainment, which will probably translate to more pointless fight scenes and fan service but eh...

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Starfire had been very understanding.

After Raven finally deduced why her emotions didn't get out of control when she was near Frost, she decided to spend every available moment with her. The magician no longer attempted to evade the kunoichi as she had done before, there was no more hesitation or doubt in her actions as she knew that being with Frost was the right thing to do. In order to accomplish this without rising any suspicion, the sorceress would need Starfire's assistance. It was fortunate that Robin was still letting them go patrol in pairs; it benefited Raven greatly as she would hand over her communicator to her alien girl teammate and go off into the docks whilst Starfire flew about pretending that Raven was with her.

The Tamarenean princess never complained or asked for anything in return, though she often poked Raven about how Frost was doing, or if she had made friends with the other Otherworlders. Her most pressing question was when she would be allowed to go and meet them all, seeing as she was so excited to get to know people from another dimension, she could just imagine all the wonderful and exotic things that they would say! Raven had to politely decline though, the time wasn't right just yet for all of them to meet, for now she just asked her to be patient and thanked her for all her support. Of course Starfire was only too glad to help, she had never seen Raven so happy before, she could almost swear the sorceress hummed to herself when they were out pretending to patrol and she even saw her doing a twirl in mid-air once as she headed towards the docks.

Truly the powers of love were great.

As for the Konquerors, they were growing quite restless. They couldn't say they were very surprised when Frost locked herself with Raven in her room for a full day. They were both hormone riddled, curious, teenage girls after all. It was obvious they were going to explore each other's bodies to their fullest until they finally tired themselves out. Their only hope was that Frost wouldn't get incredibly side tracked and forget of her promises of power to instead fornicate endlessly with her sorceress lover. The two had returned from their date flushed and headed directly for their room without saying a word to anyone, it appeared that they had cemented their relationship rather well and their 'celebrations' could take quite some time.

Eventually, the two girls did come out and after that day Raven became a staple figure in the Konqueror lair. It was a little disconcerting for the Mortal Kombat veterans at first, the few times they had met the sorceress she had been distant, keeping herself mostly close to Frost. Now, after whatever discussion Raven and Frost had after their encounter with Red X, the Titan magician was far more…subservient. She fawned over Frost a lot of course, more so than she did before, but she also did menial tasks around their lair and interacted greatly with everyone else. She prepared tea for them, cleaned the main area where they practiced and mopped it when they were done, prepared dinner, helped Sektor with maintenance, helped Nightwolf and Jade with the garden they were cultivating, she even taught Noob Saibot a few spells. They didn't know what Frost had told Raven, but it had definitely worked, she was incredibly willing to assist them in any way they needed despite her previous hesitation due to their conflicting morals. The Konquerors even caught Raven kissing Frost's hand a few times, it would have disturb them if they hadn't found it so comical.

The wraith and the android started jokingly referring to her as their new maid after a while.

"It looks like you are out of a job, Jade." The Lin Kuei cyborg ninja cackled evilly

Jade looked at him with irritation at his chauvinistic comments. "Swine," she answered angrily and left in a huff.

The two ex-Lin Kuei laughed at her reaction.

"At least she is better than Frost; I keep forgetting that she is even a woman with the way she acts."

"HEY!" The ice kunoichi caught wind of Sektor's comment and ran at him.

"I AM A DELICATE FLOWER!" Frost shouted as she cold clocked Sektor in the jaw, denting his helmet and sending him tumbling over the sofa which promptly flipped over. The irony of her actions was probably what hurt Sektor the most.

A mirthful giggle was heard from the once morbid mystic girl, a strange melodically titter of laughter to follow the loud wrathful actions of the Otherworlders.

Raven was surprised how much she was enjoying herself watching the antics of these so called Konquerors. For them, jaw shattering blows like the one Frost had given Sektor were naught but simple love taps and all of them laughed it off, minus Sektor of course who was trying to fix the dent in his helmet.

For the sorceress, it reminded her too much of the interactions between Cyborg and Beast Boy, though the main difference then was that at the Tower she had to guard her emotions at all times. Here, with these strangely flawed Demi-Deities she could finally relax and be at ease. How amusing it was for her to know that the only place where she could really be at peace was in the company of super human serial killers.

Perhaps this had been her true self all along. Perhaps she really did find the antics of the Titans funny and she merely did not act on it because of her powers. Curiously, Raven found that she enjoyed her peaceful role of placidly helping others more than her previous brooding self, there was no darkness to hold back now and she could take joy in the little things that she always denied herself. Frost thought that Raven's sudden submissive attitude was unnerving, but for Raven this was paradise, even such a simple thing as handing Nightwolf a cup of tea and him thanking her for it sent waves of joy through her, sensations she had never allowed herself to experience before, before she had met Frost all her actions were more like a chore instead of being out of her own volition.

Harsh realxiation struck Raven when she remember that her safe haven was only with Frost and the others. She slowly began to grow too comfortable and forget that her feelings of peace did not extend outside the company of Frost and her Otherworlders. This started having disastrous results in the tower.

Her fellow Titans had noticed her being far more cherry than..well...ever. She tried to help around the tower more in an attempt to mimic her behavior in Frost's lair, and in a cruel reminder of her cursed existance, when she did so things exploded at random. Cyborg and Beast Boy were now actually conditioned to rapidly decline Raven's offers for tea, because when the sorceress poured them both a cup, their glasses promptly blew up on their faces scalding them with the hot liquid. They were starting to think she was doing it on purpose.

Raven had always lived in a desert and with Frost she had found an oasis. Now that she had tasted joy she couldn't live without it, she could not possibly go back to being the way she once was, not when there was such a simple solution right in front of her. She was trying to drink too deeply from her newfound pool of emotions and in doing so she was suffocating herself.

It wasn't fair. It wasn't fair that the one person that could help her control her emotions fully was an enemy of the Titans. Raven had attempted numerous times to convince Frost to renounce her ways, bring her Otherworlders to the tower and make them all honorary Titans so that they could all live together. Her efforts were met with much resistance from the kunoichi, she wasn't going to play by the rules, she felt that this dimension would fare much better under their dominion and there was absolutely no way she would ever accept Robin's leadership.

Raven was no longer in a position where she could argue, she half heartedly pleaded and even attempted to pull a Starfire by giving Frost a puppy eye look but in the end, even if that almost had worked, Frost still believed her idea was better and called Raven on her cheap shot act.

The sorceress was in a Catch 22 situation. She could either bottle all her emotions and return to the tower where she could pretend nothing ever happened, or she could completely and willingly join Frost in her mad quest of world domination.

Searching through her emotions, Raven honestly thought that she was far more willing to go with the later at this point, even betraying the Titans was a far better fate than return to her permanent self confinment. She would not be seduced so easily however, she knew that such a selfish solution was wrong and went against everything she believed in, forcing her to desperately seek a compromise between the two. She needed to find something that would help her not rely on Frost so much for support and perhaps even the playing fields a bit.

And so she got quite a radical idea.

"Could you teach me?" asked the magician to Frost a scant three days after her declaration of love.

"Teach you what? Martial arts? Are you kidding me?"

"Why? Don't think I can handle it?" Raven gave Frost /the/ stare, even with her newfound submissive attitude she still could make the ninja girl do anything she wanted by just looking at her the right way.

Frost promptly spat the tea Raven had brewed for her making a mess of her shirt and coughed. "No! Aheh..that's not what I meant." She wiped her shirt with a napkin "I just like spoiling ya. Now that you mention it though, it could be pretty fun. Hey, I'll even let you call me sifu. Oooh, especially in bed, that'd be hot..."

Raven cleared her throat so Frost's mind didn't wander too much

"So can you teach me or not?"

"Sure!" Frost jumped off the couch gingerly, always elated at the prospect of good old fashioned fighting. The where or the why didn't matter to her, only that fights happened. "We'll have to see on what level you are first before we do anything official. I don't think I've seen you fight for real. Even if you're some kind of realm defender, the fact that you admitted to not having a fighting style raises all kind of warning flags for me."

Raven understood and gave what could possibly be taken for a smile, the corners of her lips arched up in the slightest form of a smirk. "Fine, just as long as you don't try going easy on me."

"Oh no, I ain't sparring ya!" The girl pulled back giving Raven a wide eyed look. "Student teacher relationships are hot and all but they're disastrous for actually teaching anything. I know myself babe, we get all tangled up in there and I might just try to grope ya." Grinning at the thought, Frost ignored the narrowed eyed look the mystic was giving her while moving away from her and towards the large square the Konquerors had drawn on the ground where they held their sparring. "Imma need a less involved party with this if you know what I mean. Actually, I might even be able to kill two birds with one shot. Yo! Nightwolf!"

The shaman looked up from his ever pensive state, a pipe lazily placed on his lips. He stared at the kunoichi who had perturbed his thoughts. For some reason, despite his relaxed position, he looked slightly tense. The plumes of smoke flowing out his pipe making his gazeless blank look that much more intimidating.

"How you feeling Nighty? You need to let out some steam?"

Almost immediately Nightwolf was on his feet, putting his pipe away to approach the plucky ninja girl. It was clear that his inner turmoil was due to the evil spirits stirring inside of him, Frost's invitation couldn't have come at a better time.

"The earth thirsts for blood. She shall be quenched."

"Whoa, easy Nighty, you ain't killing anyone, remember that." Frost waved an accusing finger to the troubled shaman, her gaze cutting him off before he could get too carried away. "I'm putting you up versus Raven here; she ain't a fighter like us so you can't go crazy. Are you sure you can control yourself?"

Ashamed at his lack of self-restraint, Nightwolf redoubled his efforts to keep the spirits from taking full control of his body. He winced, showing signs of deep internal turmoil, before he gave Frost a straight answer. "Yes, I am in control."

It was quite a leap of faith from the part of the young kunoichi, to have the relatively inexperienced Raven against the unpredictable shaman. A worried look settled upon Jade's gaze sensing the unmistakable coldness in the air before a Mortal deathmatch, no matter how many times she had experienced such a dreadful sensation she could not grow accustomed to it. She could not even imagine how there were individuals who relished that numbing tingling feeling on their spine when kombat was about to ensue, if Jade hadn't sworn millennia ago to always follow the path of the warrior she wouldn't mind never ever experiencing that feeling again.

Raven was not hesitating however; the sorceress would not shrink from combat as she was far too familiar with fighting. Exuding with confidence, forged from a life time of fighting crime, Raven boldly took her cloak off so it wouldn't hinder her and stepped into the crudely drawn on square the Konquerors used as a ring. As it was usual done bynow, Sektor would be refereeing the match since he was the only one that had a playback mode if any wanted to see the replay.

After instructing both Nightwolf and Raven to not use any of their powers, Frost stood on the sidelines next to Saibot. Interestingly, though it was Jade who looked apprehensive with the sparring match, it was the shadow wraith who voiced any concern at all.

"Are you certain this is a good idea, Frost?"

"Relax man." Frost smirked as she watched the proceedings. "Without his powers Nighty is on the same level as Raven, he ain't as fast as the rest of us. He's unarmed, so he can only use his Vale Tudo, Okichitaw, Tae Kwan Do, super strength… " A Pause "Holy crap, this /is/ a bad idea. Wait!"

The ninja's horrible realization came too late. Sektor was already announcing the start of the match.

"Round One."

"FIGHT!"

Surprisingly, Raven was the one who took the innitiative. Doing just as Robin had instructed her to do when she was cornered, the girl rushed in with her upper body ducked low to avoid any stray attacks sent to her face and swung a right punch directly for the shaman's chin.

Robin did specify that this movement would work on just about any untrained opponent who was not expecting a forward attack, though as Raven would soon be very painfully aware, Nightwolf was neither unaware nor untrained.

The shaman didn't even bother taking a stance; the second Raven was ducking low his arm was already stretched out to merely wrap a gruff palm on the girl's face blinding her completely while at the same time stopping her attack from ever connecting. The shaman's hand was almost as big as Raven's head, which meant that he had no problems pushing on her head violently, forcing her to bend over backwards and slam her back first on the ground.

Raven gave a grunt when her body crashed on the floor, legs up and stretched out, she momentarily forgot all martial training and desperately went to grasp at Nightwolf's wrist in an attempt to pry his vice like hand away from her head.

The shaman took the very visible opening of Raven leaving her mid section undefended and brought a heavy fist on her stomach, with enough control to not punch a hole through her body, but with enough impact that it knocked the wind out of her.

Raven wiggled around trying to get air back to her lungs, writhing and struggling for a few moments before slumping back on the floor, her body lying perfectly still.

"Nightwolf wins."

"Flawless Victory."

Sektor raised a right arm up announcing the victor of the match in the time honored traditional manner. Respectfully, Nightwolf stood up away from Raven's body looking far calmer now that the vengeful spirits stirring within his body had been satiated from the craving for violence. The moment the shaman had gotten up Frost was already rushing and kneeling beside her magician lover, cradling her head on her lap with great concern.

"Raven! Are you okay?"

The sorceress stirred and groggily opened her eyes "Ooough… What hit me?"

"Punch to the liver."

Raven's face moved from side to side as if trying to see where the voice was coming from until she finally settled on Frost's face again.

"I see..." She blinked repeatedly "So... What hit me?"

The kunoichi gave an exasperated sigh and picked Raven up, carrying her as if she were her newly wed bride, one hand supporting the back of her head whilst the other was tucked behind the girl's knees. Out of reflex Raven circled her arms around the ninja girl's neck allowing herself to be carried.

"I think that's enough sparring for today," reasoned Frost.

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Jinx was no stranger to living in the streets, before being the top ranking student of the prestigious Hive Academy, before she was even scouted by their agents; she was a regular insignificant street rat. Being a metahuman meant that life had not been kind to Jinx, she had learned to fend for herself from a very tender age. In comparison, Mammoth never had to suffer anyone bullying him due to his giant size and strength and even Gizmo, who was very visible traits to speak of, could easily simply seclude himself if he felt threatened. In fact, in his case, the opposite was true as he was often sought out by others due to his incredible intellect.

For Jinx, the trade off for having bad luck powers was turning into an albino with pink hair and pink eyes, a freak of nature as the children that she grew up with often referred to her; along with any person that she ever met. Her powers were as much as giving bad luck to others as to herself. The girl had jinxed herself.

Because of this she had turned into the epitome of the saying of what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Jinx was Nietzsche's poster child; time and time again she had been betrayed by old team mates or double crossed by her own employers who thought they could weasel away from paying her, every time emerging stronger, wiser and more devious. Her insight for strategy came from a complete lack of trust to her fellows and always seeking something that would give her an advantage in a fight. She had no glorious concept about honorable combat; fights were meant to be won by any means necessary and when they couldn't they were to be fled.

Not even Gizmo had the foresight to prepare such an elaborate escape route, he had back up information of all his data but that was the extent of his survival instinct, he was the type of villain that couldn't help but go down with his base due to his recklessness.

Jinx had ensured all escape pods were as tall as Mammoth so that no matter which one the giant chose, everyone could escape safely. This ended up being greatly beneficial for her as well, since Sheeva was as big though not quite as thick as the behemoth, allowing her to share her escape pod with a weakened Jinx.

Now, a few days after their defeat at the hands of Slade's pet zombie shaolin monk, Jinx and Sheeva were alive and well, secluded in a desolated alleyway of Jump City. The down side was that they were now tired, wounded and completely cut off from the rest of their team.

"Gizmo! Come in Gizmo!" The witch yelled fruitless at her communicator, without the tiny inventor to assist her she had to rely on what little understanding she had of radio transmissions. When her communicator failed her she had attempted to use a regular car stolen radio to tune in to their frequency, so far it had yielded nothing other than static, the witch wasn't even sure what she was doing would work.

"Mammoth? Baraka? Anyone?" Grumbling in defeat, Jinx tossed the radio aside too frustrated to continue talking to nothing but white noise. She hated when her plans failed, it was a personal insult to her leadership abilities.

Cursing profusely, Jinx turned the radio off and flipped over the table where it stood sending it tumbling to the ground.

"Calm yourself." Sheeva spoke while crouched on a corner, both her left arms bandaged up after getting broken. "If you destroy that contraption our allies will not be able to reach us at all."

"I know, I'm usually a lot more composed than this." Jinx was quick to realize her childish tantrum could have cost them the only radio they had. She knelt down to inspect it sighing a breath of relief when she realized that it hadn't broken by some miracle, probably using up the last bit of good luck she had.

"I just can't believe we got our hideout swiped from us like that. How in the world could we beat Slade just to have some half eaten living corpse with a martial arts headband make us look like idiots?"

"That was no regular undead we fought, it was Liu Kang, undefeated champion of Mortal Kombat. No has ever been able to best him in single combat."

"I'm sure someone must have defeated him! He's dead now! And I can tell it wasn't by natural causes, or what? Are you gonna tell me he fell off some stairs and broke his neck?"

Sheeva closed her eyes and took a calming breath; she understood Jinx's confusion and frustration because she didn't know the history of the Mortal Kombat events. Relating the entirety of her tale, how the evil sorcerors Shang Tsung and Quan Chi united to take down the Shaolin Monk in an attempt to usurp the power of Outworld for themselves, would be incredibly tedious and needlessly complicated however, if she went into a long tirade of how the problems in her realm came to be, Jinx was going to be left even more confused.

"Trickery." Responded the Shokan simply, her eyes still closed. "He was defeated through tickery. A sorcerer distracted him by posing as his friend while another snuck behind him. It was a dishonorable fight."

"Trickery huh?" Jinx made her signature chesire grin, eyes glinting with mischief as her devilish mind got to work. "That gives me an idea."

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Raven recuperated well from her spar with Nightwolf, even if she was supposed to be a frail magician she was still a super hero and the role demanded great physical endurance. After spending some time collapsed on the sofa, Raven opened her eyes and rubbed her head, awakening to the sounds of sparring to her side.

Nightwolf was the one that was cursed by evil spirits urging him to spill blood, but the rest of the Otherworlders suffered from a similar affliction and the fight had stirred their primal blood lust. Such where the side effects of participating in the Mortal Kombat tournaments.

When Raven opened her eyes and sat up straight on the only sofa the Konquerors had in their lair, she was slightly puzzled when she saw that Jade and Sektor had taken her place on the ring and where now fighting one another. Did these people ever do anything other than punch each other? No wonder their universe exploded.

"Aww sheeyit! Grudge match!" Raven was further stirred awake by Frost's excited cries as she cheered the two kombatants on. As it happened with her fight, Noob Saibot was at the girl's side with Nightwolf now taking the role of the referee.

"Jade, ready? Sektor, ready?" The Shaman looked at both the Amazon and the Cyborg Ninja who nodded, they looked very eager to get on with it, no doubt to relief some tension between the two. "With control you two." Nightwolf reminded them and took a step back.

"Round One."

"Fight!"

"You people really can't enough of it can you?" Raven appeared next to Frost placing her cloak back on in the process; her eyes suddenly wide and alert now that Jade and Sektor began fighting each other.

"Look, we're warriors. This is what we do for fun." Explained Frost, hands on her hips dripping her usual girlish sass. "And what do you mean by 'you people'? Is that some prejudice I'm hearing?"

Raven gave a soft scoff and went to slide next to Frost, arm wrapping around hers. Instantly all of Frost's haughty attitude melted away and she forgot all about the fight, eyes locked on those of Raven. "I mean, I find it amusing that you Outworlders put so much emphasis in fighting. You could do so much more with your powers."

The Ice Kunoichi gave a wry smirk, one that Raven could see since she didn't have her ninja mask on. "It's funny you mention that, because-"

An alert rang out just then to interrupt the match. Jade and Sektor didn't stop despite this and continued to try and outwrestle each other forcing Nightwolf to try and separate them.

"What's that noise?" asked Frost looking up at the red alert sirens Sektor had installed. She wasn't even aware the warehouse had any of that.

The Cybernetic Ninja was the one usually in charge of looking after security, but with him currently tangled up with Jade, Noob took that responsibility and swiftly went to check on their puny little laptop and check on the cameras. Typing away as he put the access codes Sektor had given him, Noob Saibot pulled the camera feeds to the main screen and made an intriguing discovery.

"Looks like someone just wandered into the wrong neighborhood," commented the wraith.

"Let me see!" chirped Frost looking over his shoulder, blue eyes widening with mixed surprise and delight. "Hah! Would you look at that!"

Wondering what had gotten them all riled up, Raven looked over Saibot's other shoulder and arched an eyebrow at what she saw. One of the cameras was showing the bewildered figures of Mammoth, Gizmo and Baraka, talking amongst themselves near a trash can. They were outside their very door steps and apparently had no idea.

"What's the High Five doing out here?" Wondered Raven out loud.

"I dunno, but I'll tell you what are they gonna be doing in a second. Getting pounded! Noob, check where's that little uppity pink haired girl, she and Sheeva should be around there somewhere."

The Shadow Ninja typed away gaining access to all the cameras only showing the empty corridors of Jump City's docks. "Interesting, there's no sign of them."

"No way those three losers have enough initiative to pull a raid on their own. If they're out here it's because that pink haired bitch is telling them to do it." Frost leaned in closer and tried to turn the volume of the laptop up. "Dang it Sektor, didn't you put any sound on the cameras?"

"I lacked the necessary equipment." The Cybrog gave a grunt after he had to be pried off the Amazon and crossed his arms.

"Imma need someone to eavesdrop on their conversation, see if they're planning to flush us out or they're just lost, Jade?"

"I'm on it!" The Edenian Amazon gave a firm nod when Frost looked at her and made a dash for an open window. She may not be able to teleport as Noob Saibot and Sektor could, but she was undeniably the best spy amongst them, it would be easy for her to sneak close to the High Five boys and overhear their conversation.

Raven was admittedly rather surprised at how efficient Frost's group worked. Everyone had an assigned role just like in her team, but there was a discipline that the Teen Titans lacked, Robin always had to drag Beast Boy and Cyborg and Starfire out of their idle activities to get them to work out, or remind them of their patrolling schedule. These people had no such trouble, they had been doing this for a while it seemed, even Frost.

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"This tastes awfull!" Baraka complained as he flicked some sludge off his forearm blade.

"Of course it does, you're eating out of the stinking trash can you butt muncher!"

The High Five boys, Mammoth, Baraka and Gizmo, wandered through the docks with lost expressions in their faces. Their escape pods had dropped them in the ocean and they'd had to swim to shore, and in the process a lot of Gizmo's gadgets had malfunctioned.

Supposedly Jinx had secured an abandoned warehouse for them all so they could regroup, but being the scatter brained guys they were none of them could remember which one it was. Whilst Gizmo tinkered with his radio, Baraka busied himself trying to look for some source of nourishment and was currently rummaging through a large garbage disposal, tearing through bags with his blades and sniffing at the contents. Outworld didn't have any trash cans and they thought of a place where people just threw things to get rid of them was a novelty to the bestial Tarkatan.

"Ugh! I thought you Earthrealmers lived in cities paved with gold and ate from silver platters! This food tastes just as bad as Outworld!" complained the Tarkatan general.

"Yeah, well don't believe all you read in the frakin' internet."

"Guys, listen." Surprisingly, the only voice of reason in the whole debacle was Mammoth. He was forced to do a bit of thinking due to the injury in his arm. With his back to a wall and his rear on the ground, the colossal beast man exhaled a frustrated sigh while he watched Baraka and Gizmo go at each other, one hand resting on his broken, swollen forearm. "We need to get back with Jinx. We're sitting ducks out here. You got any luck yet Gizmo?"

"Waddaya think I've been doing this whole time? Picking my nose like Stabby over here?" Gizmo pointed to Baraka who was, incidentally, picking his nose with his forearm blade. "I can't fix the transmitter with all my equipment stinkin' wet!"

"Well keep trying!" Mammoth yelled back. The giant colossus was not Jinx by any stretch of the imagination. His plan B when something failed was simply to try again but simply applying a lot more force.

Gizmo shouted right back with as much ferocity as his tiny body could generate. "With what parts, mullet head? You think just anyone will toss transmitter parts to the trash?"

"Why not go steal them?" Baraka piped in causing both Gizmo and Mammoth to look first at him, then back at each other.

"Why didn't we think of that before?"

"Because you were too busy yelling at me, booger brains."

Baraka jumped down from the garbage bin with a big wide grin, showing all of his sharp-as-knives fangs. "Ancient Tarkatan wisdom, when you want something, just take it!"

One alone could not bear the burden, two would split apart but with three they were sufficiently balanced to have some initiative. Baraka was a very poor replacement for Jinx's leadership, but at least the two could do something other than argue with each other.

"Alright you guys, let's scrap us some gear so we can take our base back." Mammoth got back up to his massive height of eight feet, popped his forearm back in place with a sickening crack of bone and motioned for the other two members of the High Five to follow him back into the city.

"Frost, did you get all that?" Jade whispered to her radio whilst she eavesdropped on the High Five, hidden behind a building with her back pressed against the wall.

"Roger Jade, stay frosty and keep an eye on 'em, we will be dropping the hammer on those guys in T minus 20. Wait for our signal to attack, over and out." Turning off her communicator, Frost noticed that her team and Raven were giving her very skeptical looks.

"What?"

"Please stop talking like that," muttered Raven.

"Fiiiine," sighed Frost and started issuing out orders. "Nighty, you and Saibot take out the big guy. Sektor, take care of the kid with the gadgets, I don't want a repeat of last time. Baraka is all mine. They're confused and outnumbered; we don't have to worry about them having better strategy than us, just stick to your man and bring 'em down. Let's move!"

"Howgh!" Nightwolf saluted.

"Very well.." Whispered Saibot.

"Initiating." Sektor droned out.

With her team charging out the building, Frost looked over her shoulder to see that Raven was staying put.

"Not joining us?"

"I'd prefer if the High Five don't see me helping you. Jinx may not be with them but they can still mention it to someone that can use it against me."

"Suit yourself." Frost giggled as she ran out after her team, the three of them leaping from roof to roof.

"You'll miss all the fun!"

Mammoth heard the whistling of an arrow before he could react. The sudden painful sensation of a sharp object imbedded on the back of his neck momentarily immobilized him and he reached up reflexively to grasp at it, blood trickling down to his collarbone.

"Oh what now?" whinned Gizmo as he whirled around, bringing the mechanical spider legs out of his backpack to get a better vintage point.

Mammoth gurgled and snarled, pulling the offending glowing green arrow out of his neck. Fortunately his neck muscles where thick enough that they prevented what would have been a fatal injury. Had it been anybody else the arrow would have surely ripped their throat out, but not a powerhouse like Mammoth. It still stung though.

"Argggh...What the hell is this? An arrow!"

"That's one of Nightwolf's! We're under attack!"

"No friggin' kidding!" Gizmo shouted.

The three villains whirled around to see in the direction where the arrow came from. The saw the Apache shaman perched atop a building with a glowing green bow held in his hand. The shaman hailed them fearlessly by standing up straight, raising his arm up into the air and yelling. "AY-YI-YI-YII!"

Mammoth snarled angrily back at him unleashing a bestial roar of his own. His war cry made the very ground shake and drowned out Nightwolf's shout, though this bravado was meaningless in the end as it was something that the Apache wanted Mammoth to do.

With all of them concentrating on the attacking brave, Mammoth didn't notice a shadow creeping under his feet. Suddenly he felt a pair of powerful arms sneak right under his armpit and before he knew it his entire world was spinning as Noob Saibot took him for a ride ending with him crashing head first into the pavement.

"Oh screw this! I'm out!" Gizmo tried to make a run for it but he too felt a pair of arms circling around him, bringing him down from where his robotic spider legs held him high. He struggled for a moment, kicking his legs and cursing loudly until he realized he was face to face to the barrel of a flame thrower.

"You know what this is," came Sektor's somber mechanical voice. "Cease struggling unless you want your face melted off."

At this point, Baraka was more confused than scared (although the notion that a Tarkatan would ever be scared was laughable). Gizmo was incapacitated by Sektor and Mammoth had managed to pry his head out of the ground, but he was now being attack by both Noob and Nightwolf. Even without the broken arm he had no chance of taking on both the Sin Eater and the Shadow Wraith at the same time.

Baraka's decision on who to help was made for him. A bladed circle spun in his direction and he barely managed to deflect it with a quick blade swipe. His yellow eyes glanced to the side in time to see a dark skinned woman garbed in green charging at him, a metal staff held in both her hands.

"Jade..." Baraka snarled under his fanged teeth as he unleashed both blades with a roar.

Making an X block, he stopped an overhead smash from hitting his head and pushed Jade back to try and counter her attack. As he moved to get within range he felt crushing pain on the side of his face as he took a roundhouse kick.

"Yo!" Frost chirped happily watching Baraka stagger to the side and whirled around swiping blindly at her like an enraged animal. The kunoichi cackled and slid backwards with her eyes locked on Baraka, still engaging her target.

The Tarkatan general attempted to charge the spiky haired girl but felt a steel object impact the other side of his head knocking one of his teeth out. Angrily, he turned around and tried to attack Jade again. It was almost pathetic how the two women where flanking him.

Frost threw an ice kunai at his leg making the warrior snarl in anger and pain. While he was momentarily dazed both Jade and Frost attacked him at the same time, Jade thrusting her bo staff on his throat while Frost kicked him in the back of the head, sandwiching him between the two.

"Urggg..." That was it for the mighty Tarkatan. He dropped to his knees holding his neck and collapsed on his side by Jade's feet.

"You make this too easy, Baraka." The Amazon smiled down at him, leaning on her bo staff.

"Hate you...so much..." He struggled to say.

Mammoth had no better luck against his two foes. The giant took a wild swing at Nightwolf, who ducked under it and ran past him sliding an energy knife across his sides to cut his stomach open. Mammoth held his wound with one hand and threw a haymaker punch with his other in an attempt to smash the dodgy shaman.

This too missed, his knuckles crashed into the ground as Nightwolf came to a stop before the punch could hit him, letting Mammoth's arm get stuck into the hole he just made. When he tried to pull it free, Noob Saibot came running at his side and kicked him on his outstretched elbow. It was the exact same spot where Liu Kang had hit him the day before.

With the extra pressure the arm broke again and Mammoth, too fell holding his once again useless limb.

"Mother fuAAAGH!" He felt a powerful hand pulling him by his long hair as Nightwolf held his energy knife to his throat, glaring at him dangerously.

"Yield." He commanded. Mammoth said nothing to that, merely looking angrily at the Apache while he huffed out air in exhaustion and pain.

"Okay, scumbag, where's the other two?" Frost reached down to grasp Baraka by his shirt and pulled him up to her face. The Tarkatan winced from all the cold air she was blowing on him. "I know Sheeva and the other chick were with ya! Did they get fed up with your three and threw you out?"

"Don't tell them anything!" Mammoth yelled to Baraka while he was restrained.  
Baraka grinned maliciously and spat in Frost's face. "You hear that girl? As how you Earthrealmers say, We ain't telling you nothin'"

In response, Frost wiped the saliva out of her cheek and slapped Baraka with her open palm before summoning one of her serrated ice daggers. "Maybe you'll start talking after I've carved up that ugly face of yours a little."

"Frost! No!" All looked up when they heard a familiar voice. It was Raven who floated down where the battle had taken place, her cloak fluttered in the wind as she landed before she wrapped herself with it.

"The Titans are here too? This has got to be the most mud sucking, booger munching, fart sniffing day of my life." Gizmo went limp in Sektor's arms.

"What's up Rae? I thought you didn't want to be seen." Frost looked at the sorceress questioningly.  
Raven in turn, shook her head. "I changed my mind. I've realized..." She hesitated to speak as if to trying to find the right words. "Frost...this is it, this is the opportunity you have to change your ways."  
Frost closed her eyes and deflated, letting go of Baraka just in case he tried to bite her finger off when she was distracted. "Oh brother..." She sighed.

"Listen Frost," Raven continued not letting Frost's attitude dissuade her. "You've taught me a lot lately, you've proven to me that you really are the girl that I took you for. One that ultimately wants to do the right thing." She breathed in feeling the warmness that she was beginning to feel, this reassured her that she was on the right track with Frost.

"Frost, I am not going to hide any longer, let's make this official. Let me call Robin and you can turn these three over to us, it will show him that you're using your power for good."

"Ugh! I gotta deal with what twerp Robin now? That wasn't part of the deal!" Frost reeled back in horror, dreading having to do any interaction at all with the leader of the Titan Titans.

Raven's eyes softened. In the olden days, in the days where she was not allowed to feel anything, where there was only a void within her, the only thing she could do when someone disagreed with her was stare coldly at them.

Today, Frost unwittingly helped her cause by giving her the ability to unleash her emotions. The sorceress took a hint from Starfire and approached the ice kunoichi, looking at her eyes pleadingly. "Frost...please..."

The ninja could not refuse twice in a row that day, Frost's fair face turned a deep shade of red and she turned away breaking eye contact with the sorceress. "F-Fine! Sheesh! Just stop looking at me like that in public. It's embarrassing!"

Frost felt a soft palm grasping her cheek and was forced to look back at Raven. Staring at her with bewildered eyes, her face was cupped by both of the magician's hands, holding her head gently to pull her into kiss. Raven's lips lingered on Frost's blue painted own, slowly pulling back. None of the stoic coldness remained in Raven's eyes, she was positively glowing. "I told you I wouldn't hide it anymore."

"Eeeew! Did they just kiss?" Gizmo said making gagging noises.

"Hey, shut up, I'm trying to enjoy the show here. Gotta get at least something good outta this beating."

"I don't care, any display of affection just makes me sick to my stomach. Hey! If you two are done trading saliva can we please get a move on it?"

Raven went back to her usual somber mood and shot Gizmo a glare. "We'll be taking you to jail soon enough." Placing her hood up, Raven looked at Frost at the still shocked Frost and gave a quick nod. "I left my transmitter with Starfire, so I'll have to fly up there. Take them to the warehouse and I'll talk to you from there after I've worked things out with Robin." Giving Frost a parting caress to her cheek, Raven took to the skies and headed in the direction of the Titan Tower.

After Baraka, Gizmo and Mammoth were safely secured by a restraining spell Noob Saibot cast on them, Jade decided it was time to step out of the shadows and confront Frost. She had kept quiet about her relationship with the sorceress for too long.

"Frost." The Amazon placed a hand on the girl's shoulder. For her part, Frost was completely at ease reading a magazine while waiting for Raven to call her.

"Yeah?" She looked up.

"First of all, allow me to apologize for the way I've mistreated you. I admit now that you are a very competent leader and I was acting out of line by questioning you all the time. For that, I am sorry. Your title of prodigal Lin Kuei student is well deserved."

The kunoichi raised her eyebrows in surprise, but she knew that something else was coming and kept quiet. Just as she thought, Jade spoke again.

"With that out of the way however, I must ask you. What are your true intentions with this girl? I can see that she loves you very much."

"Hm? Raven and I are just fooling around, it's nothing really serious. I'll figure out a way to shake her off that mad notion she's got about making us all heroes. Girl has to grow up and realize not everything's black and white."

Jade placed her fists on her hips and stared at Frost looking very disappointed. "Frost..." She began.

"You really didn't think I was okay with us becoming heroes did ya? I made you guys a promise; we'll become the rules of this world one way or another. I'll convince Raven this is the way to go and we can stay together, no big deal."

The Amazon shook her head and decided to sit next to Frost. The kunoichi leaned her cheek on her hand sensing that Jade was about to give her a long sermon.

"Here we go… it's like having Nightwolf in stereo." She muttered.

"Frost, you can't lead on the poor girl like that. You care about her a lot too it seems. For that reason alone you should be honest with her."

"I was gonna tell 'er eventually. I figured it wasn't a good idea when she was covering me with kisses you know? Didn't want to get strangled in case she flipped out."

Frost felt Jade placing her hand on hers to get her attention. "Frost, you may be a prodigal fighter and leader, but you are still very young in comparison to most of us. I've been alive for more than a thousand years and have some experience in these matters, enough to know that what you are planning to do will do much more harm than good. Allow me to share some wisdom to you as a friend."

"You ain't no friend of mine Jade, quit lying."

"Yes, I am." Jade said severly. "I am now. Frost, after what we've been together I consider you one, even Noob Saibot and..." The Amazon tightened her lips a little before speaking again "And... even Sektor. It is as you said; it is different here."

The Wraith elbowed Sektor a few times when he overheard that. "Isn't that cute? Chan has a new friend now."

"Go burn in the Netherealm, Bi-Han." Sektor just gave a grunt and continued reviewing things on the computer.

"I've been there already." Chuckled Saibot.

"Alright, waddaya want to tell me?" Frost grew impatient, her plan was just to nod and pretend she was going to do whatever Jade told her only to really just ignore her and carry on with business as usual. It was not so much because she was a deceptive ninja, but because that was the norm for girl's her age told to do something by an authority figure.

"I...experienced a similar situation to yours many centuries ago." Jade began. "This may surprise you but I was...am...in love with Princess Kitana."

Frost gave a scoff and laughed. "Actually, you're kinna not fooling anyone with that Jade. You're in a proverbial transparent closet."

The Edenian bodyguard blinked a few times surprised by this development and turned to Nightwolf. "Nightwolf? You knew this as well?"

"Ermm..." The shaman had tried to distance himself from the conversation, trying to instead keep his attention on the prisoners, yet he saw no way to untangle himself from the mess he knew it was coming. "Yes… Everyone knew of your infatuation with the Princess. It was quite obvious, in fact, I think the only one that was not aware of it was Johnny Cage."

"Well..." Jade was honestly quite surprised and blushed slightly, still visible despite her sun kissed skin. "Leaving that as it may, I never told this to Kitana. For centuries, I watched from afar as she was betrothed to Prince Rain, always restraining myself from confessing my feelings. When Kitana chose Liu Kang as her best suitor I still held my tongue, hoping that my heart would find comfort knowing that my beloved was happy. And now, I shake with sorrow at the thought of never seeing her again, to think that I may be stuck in this dimension forever without her knowing that-"

"Okay, okay… cut the sap please." Frost made a time-out gesture with her hands. "What's does that have to do with me?"

"Frost, if you are not honest with your feelings I can guarantee you are going to regret it. If you continue this path with Raven and lead her to think that you will eventually join her cause, she may ask further commitment from you. Why, mayhap, when you both are of age, she might even want to marry you."

At that, Frost laughed loudly and kicked her legs. "Don't be ridiculous! Do I look like the marrying kind to you? Besides, that's like, illegal in these parts."

"Actually..." Sektor spoke up, unable to not butt in on the conversation. "According to this article, Jump City is obligated by Californian Law to allow marriage between same genders, unlike China. It could be a possibility the sorceress may attempt to do this."

"Oh..shit." Frost's eyes went wide and she felt fear that she never felt before. Her imagination went wild with images of her in a tuxedo carrying Raven bridal style, the Titans seated on Raven's side with her team seated on hers… Them living in a normal house with a bunch of adopted children and all of them crying… Having to do their homework and...and...

"No way." She hadn't taken into account that American laws were drastically different from China's.

"Not happening."

"I gotta break up with her."


End file.
